“To make each hole present a different problem and to arrange it that every stroke must be made with the full concentration and attention necessary to good golf, to build each hole in such a manner that it wastes none of the ground at my disposal and takes advantage of every possibility that I can see.”
Legendary Golf Course Designer, Donald Ross
standing on the shoulders of the clubhouse.
The five-star hotel complex is planned to be equally enterprising and will host facilities to cater for the modern golfer as well as families. The 150-bed luxury hotel will include bar, restaurant, golf shop, fully specified gymnasium and swimming pool, as well as club fitting rooms suitable for PGA professionals. The courses themselves are to be split into the West course and East course, both of which are just shy of 7,000 yards, but each having their own characteristics and challenges. The West course has been designed with the aim of giving it some of the characteristics of a links course, with a hope that it will be challenging enough to attract tour events. For the East course, the plans are to encompass a forestry feel to make it more of a parkland-style development, which will be much more akin to the natural landscape of its central Scotland location. As part of the overall theme of
reclamation, birch and Scots pine trees have been sourced from the site of the existing mineworks and are planned to be included in the course to make it as authentic as possible and provide instant maturity. Courses that PGADC have already designed in Scotland and in Norway will give a good indication of the look of the East course, Ecosse say. Both East and West courses are being constructed to United States Golf Association (USGA) specifications, the standard-bearer for premium quality, Muirhead believes, and will allow maximum opportunity for play due to
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carefully considered drainage and maintenance, he adds.
Back in 2005, PGADC had approached Billy Nimmo, Barenbrug’s Scotland manager, whose responsibility is to oversee and advise seeding and selection processes for all playing surfaces on site, with details of the proposed 36-hole Whitburn development, together with a specification of grass mixtures. After analysing the construction of the
mixtures, Nimmo contacted the PGA with recommended alternative mixtures based on specific characteristics suitable for the site.
He suggested trialling both the initially submitted PGA mixtures and the ones recommended by Barenbrug. The PGA agreed and Nimmo arranged for development of a trial site at Polkemmet after talks with project manager, Alex Muirhead.
“Seed was sown in August 2005 and intended to show results relating to species interactivity, sward composition and final species survival only,” Nimmo explains. “None of the plots were fertilised and no water applied throughout the 12-month period. It was apparent that the original specifications were not suited to the environment, but the advised Barenbrug mixtures would provide full ground cover,” he concludes.
Local knowledge of all sites that
Barenbrug are involved in throughout Scotland was “paramount”, Nimmo says. “This is knowledge I have gained over nineteen years in the industry working throughout Scotland, although the Donald Ross site is special for me, born and bred in Bo’ness, a stone’s throw from the site.” Within the Barenbrug breeding
programme, one aspect the seed producer specialises in is low temperature trials, which give precise information of individual cultivars within the species groups, Nimmo says. “For example, Barbirdie chewing’s fescue performs exceptionally well at low temperatures and, as such, is ideal for the climate we have in Scotland.”
Barenbrug mixtures Greens: BAR 2 Tees: BAR PLATINUM Fairways: BAR PLATINUM Semi rough: BAR PLATINUM Rough:
Specially designed natural habitat mixture
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