For the second year running Ely City Golf Club’s members will begin the golfing season playing an improved golf course following the completion of phase two of the golf course renovation designed and supervised by Swan Golf Designs.
Autumn 2012 saw the re-bunkering of the 7th, 8th and 9th holes as the renovation programme moved beyond the halfway stage. The new holes have recently been brought into play by Head Greenkeeper Andy Baker, and are posing a new set of challenges for the golfers at ElyCity.
The golf course was extended from nine to eighteen holes in the late sixties by Alex Swan and Henry Cotton and has remained, essentially, unchanged since then. The renovation programme, conceived after a full appraisal and audit undertaken by SGD some three years ago, is being phased over five or so years and is focussed on a revised bunkering strategy designed to meet the playing and aesthetic expectations of members and visitors alike. Seven holes were revised in the first phase and met with outstanding acclaim from Cambridgeshire’s golfers, with the course being described as “the best in the county”. The second phase has seen significant changes on three holes, including the wholesale remodelling of the approach and surrounds to the 8th green.
Howard Swan adds: “It is lovely to be able to go back to a club and course where you had spent some of your earlier professional life … in this case with my father … to lay it out and to be able to build upon those original foundations to grow and evolve it. ElyCity has a progressive long term policy of striving to develop its facilities, in the house or on the course, with a sound business plan and it is just a pity that more do not have such vision to improve, in a continuing and well resourced programme as they have implemented. They continue to invest in professional advice and management for the renovation and development of the course and there is no doubt that the future for this prominent Cambridgeshire club will go from strength to strength because of this with an increasingly good reputation.”
Ely City Golf Club www.elygolf.co.uk
Swan Golf Designs www.swangolfdesigns.com