With many golf games being won or lost on the green approaches to the pin regular practice on a dedicated ‘short game’ area can make a huge difference to golfers successes and enjoyment of their games. With this in mind Gavin Robson, Branston Golf & Country Club’s talented course manager has designed and built a first class short game facility between Branston Academy’s Driving Range and its splendid family-friendly clubhouse. This extensive landscaped area, created to stringent Environment Agency standards, opened to members recently.
Having cleared scrub and dead trees, including many felled by the infamous Storm Doris, Branston’s dedicated seven-strong team of talented green-keepers set about transforming an overgrown area beside the Club’s leafy entrance drive into one of the finest & most attractive short game practice areas in the Midlands.
The mammoth, two month-long task last Winter saw Gavin Robson’s team ‘move heaven & earth’ bringing in 120 tonnes of drainage stone, 40 tonnes of ‘blinding layer’ water retaining sand & stone, 180 tonnes of soil for banking, 160 tonnes of specialised sand, soil & peat mixture for the grass root zones and lay 200 meters of pipe-work,.
Once laid & landscaped to include two putting greens, surrounded by eight bunkers the whole area was covered in nearly 4,000 square meters of specialised grass including the finest bent fescue Lincolnshire grown turf for the greens. Astroturf all-weather matting allows golfers to practice chipping onto the greens.
Gavin, who has previously designed golf courses has given his team the opportunity to experience creating this splendid facility with a McKenzie two-tier green, a flat green, with pot and flash bunkers. The whole area is surrounded by picket fencing and tree planting screening to adjoining properties and the footpath.
Branston’s brand new short game practice area development complements the extensive facilities available at one of the UK’s most progressive and popular clubs.
Tom Storrar, Branston’s golf manager said “We have an incredibly strong membership here at Branston and this is a great addition for them; the short game area is absolutely state-of-the-art and will match anything in the country. It has already proved a real hit with our members and we see it as a huge asset to the club going forward.”
“Players can now use the designated area to work on all aspects of their short game, from bunker shots to chip and runs and lob shots. We have an incredibly strong Academy at Branston, so this is the perfect time to expand the facilities on offer and enhance our teaching programme for our three PGA teaching Professionals” he added.
Branston Golf & Country Club www.branstonclub.co.uk