Altonwood continues team-wide investment with Westerham bunker renovation – Golf News
With five courses across Surrey and Kent, including three of the four most popular golf courses in England, Altonwood Group is known for its high quality courses and exceptional customer experience.
To maintain those standards, the club has recently undertaken a development program at its first course, Westerham Golf Club in Kent, with significant improvements in play over the past four years.
“We’ve been involved in a major course development program, including significant tree clearing and fairway and bowl improvements, but one thing that has kept coming up with feedback from members and visitors has been the bunkers,” commented Simon Hodsdon, managing director at Altonwood Group. “
“The conditions of the old bunkers were very simple and undefined. With the help of the architect Alan Walker, we decided to balance the number of living spaces, make each of them bigger and appear more attractive and give the challenge of golf a good risk that should be dangerous.”
Andy Royall, Altonwood’s Group Course Manager, added: “From a maintenance point of view it was a constant battle with weeds, rocks and sand contamination. We spent so much time on them, and they didn’t really add to the golf experience, so it was clear that we needed to find a workable solution that would prevent us from improving.”
Faced with a complete redesign, and the introduction of larger, more defined shapes, Simon and Andy began researching options that would not only deliver the golf experience they needed, but would provide benefits throughout.
“We knew that turf doesn’t last long, so we researched options that would look good and require the least amount of maintenance,” continued Simon. “After talking to a few courses, EcoBunker was the standout choice. Their synthetic finish was widely praised, but to our surprise we ended up using their EcoTec line, as it wasn’t on our radar at first.”
Andy continued, “We really did our homework on liners, but every option had drawbacks. When Richard showed us a sample of the EcoTec liner it took us 10 minutes to see that it would be forgiving if the club ever made contact with him, it would grip the sand well and if the ball hit it directly, it wouldn’t bounce.”
With 12 bunkers planned for the first phase of the works, EcoBunker conducted training over two days, before the Westerham team continued with the rest of the work.
“Placing and closing the liners was very easy, and the team started building the artificial edges very quickly. With a technical work that will last for many years, the process was much easier than we thought,” said Andy. “And now that we’ve finished the first phase, not only do the new dorms look really nice, on the maintenance side the drainage system has improved, there’s absolutely no sewage pollution and the amount of measurement has been reduced dramatically. We’re saving time and budget and freeing up resources that allow us to focus on other parts of the course.”
The second phase in Westerham is set for the fall, but the Altonwood property development doesn’t stop there. With plans across the group to improve facilities and improve the customer experience, EcoBunker is set to add more in the future.
“The only response I get from the bunkers now is to ask how fast we can do the rest!” Simon concluded. “So much so that when we’re done here, we’ll move on to Woldingham. As a team, we’re investing a lot of money, hello.”
