Perranporth Golf Club in Cornwall in the south-west of England has appointed Lobb + Partners as its consulting architect to carry out a series of course enhancements to the historic James Braid-designed links.
Founded in 1927 and designed by the legendary James Braid, the Perranporth course is extremely unusual in that it has largely been left untouched since the club was founded.
“The course is a glorious blast from the past, I love it and love its settting,” says Tim Lobb. “There are a lot of blinds shots, which adds to the thrill of the golfing journey, and which make the course stand out from the norm, given that most old links have been extensively reworked to remove a lot of the blindness and other quirk. It’s such a raw experience – and we don’t want to lose that, rather to enhance it. Today’s golf is becoming sterile – we want to retain the course’s unique feel.”
Lobb says he hopes to enhance the course, and also the landscape of the property in general. “We have done a lot of work on landscape improvements in our heathland work, and the same priorities apply on a links,” he says. “Course manager Rob Cook and his team have already done some great work in this respect, encouraging marram and other coastal species in the roughs, as well as the appropriate fine grasses in the playing areas, and it is my hope that we can help them go even further.
“As far as course work goes, we will explore the entire property – which is pretty vast – to look for opportunities to improve the experience for all golfers. But I am not going to sterilise it – the rawness is an essential part of what makes Perranporth such a fabulous place to play.”
Club chairman Graham Parkyn says that this partnership is a big step for Perranporth. “Our course is basically still as Braid designed it back in the 1920s, and we don’t want to lose that feel, so it was crucial for us that Tim understood that,” he explains.
“To have someone of Tim’s standing partnering with us is very exciting for the future wellbeing of the club and course. Tim has spent quite a bit of time over the past few years getting to know the course and people, and his passionate desire to work here was very attractive from our perspective. We look forward to a productive partnership for years to come.”