After a busy 2003 which included the completion of the driving range and first 9 holes of an 18-hole course at the new Burstwick Golf Club near Hull – built by M J Abbott and opening for play in August this year – Gaunt & Marnoch continue in the same vein with the new extension to the existing 18-hole course at Silkstone Golf Club near Barnsley. Following the purchase of adjacent land the project comprises seven new holes and the redevelopment of three existing holes, currently being built by White Horse Contractors for completion in August this year.
At Hennerton Golf Club, in Wargrave, Berkshire, construction has just started on the 9-hole extension to the existing 9-hole course. The land is gently undulating in places but also steeply sloping on a chalk escarpment, offering beautiful views of the Thames valley and Chiltern Hills. Contractors are Contour Golf Ltd and work should be completed by August 2004.
Work is well under way on the construction of a stunning new 18-hole course at Castleknock Golf Club on land attached to an 18th century mansion house only 7 miles from the centre of Dublin. The course, on the banks of the River Liffey, is designed for private members and hotel guests (a new 144-bed hotel is being built on site), and the course will be completed this August, in preparation for an opening in Spring 2006. Project manager is James Healy Associates and the contractor SOL Golf.
The most ambitious project the company ever undertaken by Gaunt & Marnoch is the new 18-hole course at Los Barrancos de la Zagaleta, in the mountains above Marbella in Andalucia, due to be completed in March 2005. The course is set in between exclusive villa properties, environmentally protected river valleys and precipitous mountain peaks. This has made construction extremely difficult, involving the careful placement of fairway platforms onto steep hillsides and elevated tees providing some breathtaking driving opportunities.
Later this year construction work is due to proceed on the new 9-hole course at Altprags, a ski resort set at 1,500 metres altitude in the spectacular Italian Tyrol Mountains; and at Lacs de L‘Eau d‘Heure GC – a new 18-hole course located on the banks of the largest man-made lake in Belgium, in the Ardennes region.
Gaunt & Marnoch look very positively towards the next few years, and are currently tendering for new projects in Scandinavia, Iberia, Baltic States, Russia and China. Company director, Steve Marnoch, said “If this trend continues I‘m going to spend more time on a plane than at home.”
Gaunt & Marnoch| www.gauntandmarnoch.com.
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