How golf courses can renovate at a reasonable cost.
To renovate or not to renovate. That is a question golf clubs tend to encounter when they reach a crossroads in their development. The dilemma may emanate from dwindling club membership, cashflow problems, a competitive golf market or their golf course looking tired and in need of a makeover.
With the unveiling of Australia’s Top 100 Golf Courses, it’s notable that four golf courses underwent major renovation projects that led to better outcomes and yielded significant rises in this year’s biennial ranking: Killara Golf Club in Sydney’s north, the public-access Sandringham Golf Links in Melbourne, Lonsdale Links on Victoria’s Bellarine Peninsula and the former Ocean course at The National Golf Club on the Mornington Peninsula.
It’s not cheap to undertake a major course renovation. But great results can be achieved with vision, lateral thinking, patience and good decision-making. Australian Golf Digest examined how and why the aforementioned courses went about their renovation projects. We hope their tales may give other clubs some confidence to explore their own refurbishment.
Innovation and patience: Killara Golf Club
Killara Golf Club is a private 18-hole facility on Sydney’s affluent north shore. It had long been regarded as one of Sydney’s finest clubs with a rich tradition dating back to its formation in 1899. Its 18 holes are spread across three ‘paddocks’ on rolling, undulating terrain conducive to interesting golf.
Historically, Killara had been a fixture among Australia’s Top 100 Golf Courses, appearing in every ranking from 1986-2004. Since the turn of the century, though, a new golden age of golf course architecture spawned a plethora of new courses, shunting Killara off the list.
Having ventured to Killara several times in the past 25 years, it was distressing to see what it had become – a botanical garden with an abundance of trees that encroached upon lines of play and made turf maintenance a challenge.
Killara had little chance of returning to the Top 100 unless a drastic improvement was made to the layout. The club took the first steps forward by seeking development approval for permission to clear superfluous trees. During those three years, Killara put out a tender for a course renovation to replace all green complexes, bunkers and surrounds – subsequently carried out by Sydney-based course architect Harley Kruse.
Approximately 500 trees were removed from playing corridors (to be replaced with native vegetation in non-playing areas). The result is quite remarkable in how swathes of land have been opened up and created a strategic element to Killara.
The entire renovation cost $5.1 million. Another $1 million is planned to be spent on more tees, some more bunkers and a couple of cartpaths. Prudent financial management over the years meant the club didn’t have to introduce a levy on Killara’s full-playing members who pay an annual subscription fee of $5,000 ($15,000 joining fee). However, a two-year levy was imposed in 2022 for a drainage and shade-management program.
To build the tees and green complexes, four outside contractors worked in tandem with Killara’s ground staff (18 full-time equivalents). Course architect Kruse was responsible for the new design while shaper Peter Wardell was responsible for bringing those concepts to fruition. In fortnightly stints, he would fly in and shape three or four holes at a time – six days a week (with Sunday off). Links Golf Constructions and Atlas Golf Services also helped with bunker and greens shaping.
The most distinctive feature of Killara’s renovation project was to adopt two innovative bunker construction techniques. The bunker walls are riveted EcoBunker ‘turf’ sods made from recycled synthetic grass – which provide a look reminiscent of the bunker faces at some of the world’s most famous links courses. The bunker bases are comprised of a porous concrete aggregate developed by Capillary Concrete that are fully sealed with exceptional underground drainage. All 47 bunkers (51 including practice areas) were built using this EcoBunker/Capillary Concrete combination. Excluding sand, the cost to install 51 bunkers amounted to approximately $500,000.
It was the combination of the two construction methods that saved Killara’s bunkers during Sydney’s extreme rainfall in early 2022, particularly the Capillary Concrete bunker liner. Grounds staff spent just two days repairing the hazards with no major damage. It actually took longer to mow the course back down to its original height than it did to rake and reset the bunkers.
Previously, the old bunkers on Killara’s clay soil would have caused significant headaches as a result of collapsed bunker walls, contaminated sand and blocked drains. “Whole bunkers would have been compromised for two to three months after an event like this,” says Killara Golf Club superintendent Ryan Fury. “They would have needed rebuilding – drainage and new sand – at a cost of approximately $120,000 to $150,000.”
Fury arrived at the $150,000 figure by calculating the working hours of grounds staff plus the material cost to rebuild drainage and lay new sand. To his credit, Fury was the key figure who pushed to install the riveted EcoBunker walls and Capillary Concrete bases.
Fury was also instrumental with the turf selection of Sir Grange Zoysia on tees and tightly mown areas surrounding the greens (Killara’s aprons used to be Kikuyu and the fairways remain Kikuyu). The finely bladed Sir Grange Zoysia is known as a ‘golfer’s grass’. It has an upright leaf structure and a golf ball will sit up nice and high on top of the leaf rather than sinking into the profile. It’s not invasive like Kikuyu where runners tend to creep into a green.
Lawn Solutions Australia provided 75,000m2 of Sir Grange Zoysia (solid turf) from its Jimboomba Turf farm in Queensland.
Sir Grange Zoysia is not the cheapest grass but it’s arguably the best turf for a golf environment. And now the $1 million expense is justified by spectacular looking greens surrounds as well as firmer playing characteristics. With regard to long-term savings, Sir Grange Zoysia is better for ongoing maintenance as well as requiring less water and fewer nutrients.
Tellingly, after 18 months of inconvenience for members, Killara has re-entered Australia’s Top 100 Golf Courses at No.83. The whole renovation has been a welcome result for all, especially grounds staff who no longer fear the next big storm.
When less is more: Sandy Golf Links
Entering the Top 100 at No.58, the refurbished Sandringham Golf Links has been a veritable success. OCM’s Mike Cocking designed the new par-65 layout that was built by the OCM shaping team in conjunction with the resources and grounds staff of the adjacent Royal Melbourne Golf Club.
The catalyst for renovation occurred back in 2010 with the lease renewal for the operation of the public-access Sandringham Golf Course. Concerned it could be re-zoned for development, Royal Melbourne submitted a proposal to manage the site and subsequently won the tender from Bayside Council.
Royal Melbourne continued to run Sandringham as a public golf facility. However, an opportunity arose with the Victorian Government’s offer for an injection of funds to establish the Australian Golf Centre on the site. The eventual $18.8 million project would feature the national high-performance training and administration facility as well as a driving range, short-game area and reconfigured golf course.
But to make room for the Australian Golf Centre, it meant losing two existing holes and gaining two holes elsewhere from what was left over. A 12-hole layout with a six-hole short course was considered for the redesign. Ultimately, the golf community and users wanted to still have a standard 18-hole golf course, leading to OCM’s par-65 layout (seven par 3s and 11 par 4s).
The new Sandy Links plays fast and firm on the same Suttons Mix bentgrass greens as Royal Melbourne. Rolling at between 9 and 11 on the Stimpmeter, it has proven to be an instant hit among social golfers eager to tackle the strategic element of a Sandbelt course at an affordable price (green fees are $50 midweek; $52.50 on weekends).
Entering the Top 100 Courses with a bullet at No.58 has vindicated the decision to abandon conventional wisdom. Adopting a par-65 routing has shown that less can sometimes mean more.
The total cost for the golf-course renovation was approximately $3.6 million. That included a new irrigation system to the tune of $750,000 while water-storage enlargement was added at a cost of $650,000. The remainder went into re-routing certain holes and reconstructing new tees, greens and bunkering for the entire 18.
Interestingly, only about 50 per cent of the Sandringham site was good sand. The lower-lying flatter areas were quite a heavy soil, according to Richard Forsyth, Royal Melbourne’s director of courses. Part of the trick during construction was to move around some of the sand to create that Sandbelt feel and uniformity throughout the whole 18 holes.
Crucially, Sandringham’s renovation wasn’t burdened by labour or equipment costs given the assistance from Royal Melbourne. Many clubs may baulk at renovation if they don’t have the resources and deep pockets of a wealthy private club. However, Forsyth says it is feasible and encourages clubs to consider renovation if it leads to a better course.
“There’s no reason any course can’t do an upgrade like that with good design and good construction. It becomes a bit more expensive if you don’t have a sandy site because you’ve got to import sand for doing the greens construction and bunkers.”
Viability of the new course is assured with income from up to 250 rounds per day as well as revenue from the driving range. Sandy Links is likely to mature with time as it shakes off the yoke of being just a public golf course. In coming years, the maintenance crew led by female superintendent Gerri O’Callaghan plans to clear out more ti tree to showcase native heathland, complete the bunkering and establish mowing patterns to create more of a true Sandbelt experience.
A leap of faith: Lonsdale Links
In 2000, the future of Lonsdale Golf Club was perilous. The Bellarine Peninsula club was losing money, membership was in decline and it had bank debts that would peak at $3 million. It was a far cry from the golden days of a 1,200-strong membership when the former Point Lonsdale was regarded as ‘The Country Club’ outside Melbourne.
With increasing costs, membership on a downward trend and desirable alternatives (Thirteenth Beach and Barwon Heads), the club established a volunteer committee to look at securing Lonsdale’s future. ‘The Taskforce’ initially sought advice from tour professional Mike Clayton and the first discussions were held about a course renovation. That relationship evolved to OCM (Ogilvy Cocking Mead) taking on the renovation project with Ashley Mead as the lead architect.
By that time Lonsdale Golf Club had negotiated to purchase some farmland from its neighbour, the Hanley family, owner of the luxurious Lon Retreat overlooking Bass Strait. That enabled the club to relocate 800 metres to the west and redevelop land that used to comprise the old clubhouse precinct. The first hole, 18th hole and practice fairway were also sub-divided to fund the course renovation.
The last of 102 residential lots was sold in 2022, generating $60 million for the club. The club spent approximately $10 million on a new clubhouse and another $10 million on the course renovation. Other costs involved the acquisition of land, construction of new maintenance facilities and water storage, sub-division, consultants and permits.
Having well-intentioned armchair experts from the membership wasn’t going to be helpful to the renovation process. The club put its faith in OCM to create a course that could be enjoyed for the next 100 years.
With that trust, Mead proposed what would be a relatively short par-70 layout stretching 5,505 metres from the tips. As a throwback to the golden age of golf course architecture in America, he replicated a number of quirky old-style design elements: rectangular tabletop greens and church pew bunkers along with template holes such as the Road Hole, Biarritz, Redan and Punchbowl.
Now some 20 years after the initial talks, the renamed Lonsdale Links is debt-free with a contemporary clubhouse and an 18-hole layout ranked 37th in Australia. It has even been able to establish a future fund with the final settlement likely to net $7 million.
“[The members are] very, very pleased with the course and the facilities that they now have versus what the Lonsdale Golf Club used to be,” says general manager Josh Hall.
“It’s very playable by all standards. It’s challenging for better players and it’s very playable for the more beginner-type player. Being a links course, with the change in the wind direction, and moving the tees around, it plays differently all the time. So it’s a really interesting course.”
Sourcing a big-name architect: The National Golf Club
The National Golf Club at Cape Schanck on Victoria’s Mornington Peninsula broke new territory in the 1980s by offering the radical concept of transferable memberships to fund construction of its original ‘Old course’ (designed by Robert Trent Jones Jnr). In 2000 it rose to new heights with a 36-hole expansion and the addition of the Ocean (Thomson, Wolveridge & Perrett) and Moonah (Greg Norman) courses. The National then broke the traditional fixed-club model with acquisition of Long Island Country Club (Gordon Oliver) at Frankston in 2015.
But while The National was in the enviable position of having four courses ranked in Australia’s Top 100 Courses, it faced a dilemma with Thomson’s Ocean course that had slipped to 50th on the biennial Top 100 ranking after reaching a peak of No.30. A significant dip in the amount of member play on the Ocean had placed pressure on the other two Cape Schanck courses from a maintenance perspective. Member grievances about the difficulty of the Ocean course were a factor.
To publicly concede Peter Thomson’s Ocean course was no longer fit for purpose was a point of sensitivity given the reverence in which the five-time Open champion was held. However, changes were warranted to balance the internal appeal of the three courses.
The National invited Thomson Perrett as well as Tom Doak’s Renaissance Golf Design to submit proposals for a redesign. Compelled by Doak’s presentation, the club opted for RGD to create a course that was more accessible to a wider range of ability levels.
Doak has made better use of the undulating terrain where wind off Bass Strait is omnipresent. The previous greens were often elevated whereas many of the new greens are situated in less-exposed valleys. Surrounding the greens, four hectares of creeping red fescue encourage a ground rather than aerial approach. The new bunkering is rustic by comparison with the smoother hazards designed by TWP. And while elements were reshaped, many of the playing corridors were preserved in one form or another.
The new course was renamed Gunnamatta and, by the time it opened in November 2019, some 35 kilometres of irrigation piping had been installed along with 1,250 sprinklers. Incidentally, RGD’s Brian Schneider covered 1,800 kilometres in a D5 bulldozer while shaping Gunnamatta’s greens.
Doak’s redesign has been well received based purely on member feedback and rounds played on Cape Schanck’s three courses. In the most recent financial year, play on Gunnamatta increased by almost 8,000 rounds to 31,086 and exceeding that on both the Moonah (24,680) and Old (22,253).
The novelty of playing Doak’s new layout as well as conditioning of the new greens (a 50/50 blend of A1 and Pure Distinction) contributed to that outcome, according to Matt Corby, The National Golf Club’s chief executive officer. It’s now the least imposing of the three Cape Schanck layouts when playing from the member tees.
Further vindicating Doak’s selection and total outlay of $5 million spent on the redesign, Gunnamatta has entered the nation’s top 20 layouts for the first time, coming in at No.15.
“The course that Doak has produced has delivered great value to the membership and to the reputation of The National,” Corby says.
