The 9th green design concept was set in stone by Adrian a couple of years before construction if you’ll pardon the shameless pun. I think you need to appreciate that the area has a strong stone quarrying connection to provide building material for nearby Bath, firstly by the Romans and then by the Georgians. Bath GC and Kingsdown are two local courses that have holes played over or through quarries. Then of course Painswick is not that far away.
Actually Adrian, the back tee is in and it comes out at about 220 yards, which I think makes that front swale even better. You could really chase one up the hill and I dare say a couple of people will reason that a bounce off the wall could be an option.
Here is a pic from closer in.
The Redanish green is on #3 and I am pleased that Adrian forced the compromise. I think I was getting carried away with my naïve, idealistic persuit of golfclubatlas inspired quirk. But it must be said, this course is unlike many new developments these days.
Here’s a couple of pix of that 3rd green from the back and from the approach. Adrian insisted on extending the green over on the right side as it is played, whereas I was quite prepaired to leave it as a narrow and sharply sloping redan. I think the finished article has come out very well and maybe a good example of conflict leading to creativity.
And from the approach. The bunker left is a grassy hollow and is a good 6ft in depth. The green in true redan style is angled from right to left and although it doesn’t show much in these pictures, there is a lot of slope to it.
