The new pond on the 150m, par-3 No 15 hole punctuates the $300,000 restructuring Hawke's Bay Golf Club has carried out to add character and challenge. Photo/Warren Buckland
The new pond on the 150m, par-3 No 15 hole punctuates the $300,000 restructuring Hawke's Bay Golf Club has carried out to add character and challenge. Photo/Warren Buckland
Saucer bunkers at quirky spots, the odd crater beckoning, a three-tier green and a pond thrown in for good measure to play on the minds of savvy golfers.
If that's not enough to grab the hackers' attention then wait until you approach the No 18, 284m par-4 tee mound to find a sign board cautioning anyone capable of launching wild pimpled titanium balls: "Give way to aircraft."
That, my swinging friends, is the risk-and-reward elements of what a $300,000 facelift at Hawke's Bay Golf Club is offering.
It is the outcome of almost two years of brainstorming and another year of construction that led to its formal opening on September 2.
Club president Mike Maguire says an open day is being held on Sunday, November 4, when affiliated and non-affiliated players are welcome to play on the course. Entry is $10 and bookings can be done via hawkes.bay@golf.co.nz or online.
Board member and secretary Trevor Hinton says: "The layout is great and it's an enhanced course."
Hinton says the revamp has secured the club's future for at least another 20 years.
He and the chairman of the club's board of management, Alan McDonald, reveal the idea was mooted to join the adjacent Hastings Golf Club but the Hawke's Bay club board gave a thumbs up to the "third option".
In 2016, HBGC members undertook a feasibility study on options to reduce the club's land holding, repay a substantial mortgage and develop a new course within the remaining 44.8ha of freehold land.
In March last year, they boldly agreed to sell 11.6ha before embarking on the project.
Grant Puddicombe, of Puddicombe Golf an international Course Design Company, was commissioned to help with the redevelopment.
Puddicombe offered three concepts to a subcommittee of members the board had established to make a recommendation on the final layout subject to approval from the club's board of management.
"The final layout agreed to used the best elements from all three initial concepts," Maguire says.
The new layout resulted in 10 new tee blocks and four new greens. Several trees were removed and some new fairway areas were developed.
While the new course uses elements of the original layout, only two holes are used in their original configuration.
It's well worth taking a few seconds out after teeing off from the white-tee 121m, par-3 No 13 hole to take in the scenery at the Hawke's Bay Golf Club in Hastings. Photo/Warren Buckland
The club had to seek grants to help with the cost of irrigation.
In June last year, the club agreed to sell about 11.6ha to Gourmet Blueberries Ltd, the owner of a significant area of adjoining land, adjacent to the No 2 fairway.
Work started in late August last year with a significant number of trees, including some very large, removed.
That didn't stop the diligent club members from staging three important tournaments in the following three months around the construction work to avoid clashes, says Maguire.
The initial focus was on green foundation and the tricky shaping at the western end of the course to prepare for placing the sand layer that was no longer on the club's land or in play.
"This work was being undertaken by the club's staff while they continued to maintain the course in a state suitable for play," he says.
Members also contributed their time and made a significant contribution to ensuring the course could continue to be used.
Early this year Puddicombe returned to consolidate the contours of the new greens.
"His talent and love for course development were readily evident to those who observed this part of the project," says Maguire.
"It was time for the big push and a large group of members gathered for the very physical and time-critical part of the development when the old green surfaces were lifted and re-laid on the new greens."
Four greens where dusted in as many days. It is a tribute to the army of members and the organisation of club manager and head greenkeeper Craig Mitchell, although some delays were inevitable.
That included the weather playing its part and a dearth of suitable sand for bunkers.
McDonald says: "What is really exciting is that the club has managed to undertake this significant project within the budget and retire a very significant debt, providing a great platform for the future of the club."
Some final touches will continue to be made to the course, especially pertaining to existing bunkers that will be replaced and, in some cases, removed.
A grinning Maguire says: "We are all excited that we have been able to launch the new course — 18 holes designed to challenge the skills and determination of any golfer who ventures on to the fescue and brown to fairways, risk the water hazards and putt out on the Pencross greens."
