Thomson Perrett & Lobb, the international golf course architecture practice founded by five times Open Champion Peter Thomson with partners Ross Perrett and Tim Lobb, has employed the services of a golf course conditioning specialist to help create a classic-style heathland course on Turkey’s Mediterranean coast.
Chris Lomas, course manager at The Berkshire Golf Club, will assist TPL in the placement and management of heather at The Carya Golf Club, Antalya, where construction is about to begin.
Lomas, 33, will also help establish an extraordinary cultivation project that will result in heather being propagated in neighbouring glasshouses while also preparing a two-hectare outdoor heather nursery to supply the club over the long term.
Tim Lobb said, “The use of heather is totally unique to golf courses in the region and will help make Carya an outstanding, classic-style course. We asked Chris to join our team for this project because his expertise is invaluable and enables us to perfect the course appearance during the design and construction phases.”
The site of Carya Golf Club is one of the best in the region for golf development and features sand hills as well as mature pine and eucalyptus forest. Although heather is naturally occurring on the site, a specially selected variety – Erica Cinerea – will suit the native soils and will be over-seeded for its protection and mixed with fine fescue grasses, before being placed on bunker tops and banking to give the course a classic heathland appearance.
Chris Lomas, who has 11-years’ experience working on heathland courses, said, “Heather is renowned in the UK as a feature of some of our finest golf courses, including Sunningdale, Walton Heath and The Berkshire. I think it is tremendous that Thomson Perrett & Lobb want to emulate the character of these classic courses in Turkey, where heather already grows naturally, and has gone the extra mile to achieve that goal.
“We will be using the heather to frame and shape the course and create that unique setting that is famous to the heathland courses in the UK.”
Carya Golf Club is due to open in November 2007.
Thomson Perrett & Lobb www.tpl.eu.com
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