[Mark_Rowlinson]

I don't think we've started doing this in the UK yet.  However, there are plenty of UK golf courses which retain their original routing.  In many cases there are no surviving plans (and there may never have been any), but if there were such plans and sufficient photographic evidence, is it something to which clubs should aspire?

[Jeff_Mingay]

Mark,

A few years ago I witnessed a very interesting presentation by the green-keeper at Walton Heath (unfortunately, his name escapes me at present), all about restoring the heath at Walton. Literally restoring the heath; prinicipally through plenty of tree removal.  

[Tommy Williamsen]

Mark it seems to me that the restoration would include tree removal, bunker restoration and some green changes in contours.  Are there other things that should be done? Like resoritng heather to some heathland courses.

[Jeff_Mingay]

tommy,

I'm sure the work at Walton also involved restoring heather throughout the course.

In fact, I believe the BIGGA magazine featured an in-depth article about the work undertaken there, at Walton, a few years ago.

Perhaps there's an archive at BIGGA's web site? I should check.

[Tommy Williamsen]

jeff it has been ten years since I last played Walton Heath.  I don't remember an over abundance of trees.  Is there plan to remove all the trees?  Do trees detrimentally influence the growth of heather?

[Jeff_Mingay]

tommy,

While looking for the Walton article in the BIGGA archives, I found this: http://www.bigga.org.uk/greenkeeper/viewstory.php?id=311

[Tony_Muldoon]

Great find Jeff but can there really be 440 proper Heathland courses? We could only identify about 150.

http://www.golfclubatlas.com/forums2/index.php?board=1;action=display;threadid=20383

Tommy I was watching a video which had some of the 1971(?) Ryder cup on it an yes it's a much more open course now.  In fact of all the Heathland courses I've seen it's easily the most open with a great feeling of being high up on an Heath with the course boundaries not so clear as on it's neighbours. I've spoken to a couple of memebers and the tree removal and Heather regeneration is the first thing they'll tell you about.

This year on half a dozen courses I visited the Heather has been uniform and dense, with less chance of a lucky lie.

[Robert Mercer Deruntz]

Last year I played Sunningdale New for the first time since 1979, when I played there many times that summer.  I remember it being much more open like Walton Heath is today.  Quite a few holes have serious tree encroachment issues.  I still think it is the better of the two.

[Mark_Rowlinson]

The other rival to Walton Heath for the abundance of its heather is Hankley Common.  They've done a bit of tree removal at Notts in an effort to regenerate the heather.  Alwoodley had taken out a lot of trees, but it is moorland, rather than heathland, although it does grow heather.  There is a lot of overlap.

[Mark Lucas]

Mark,

I believe you're right about Hankley Common rivaling Walton Heath in abundance of heather.  It too was the subject of a large heather restoration project.  Interestingly enough, the current course manager at Walton Heath, Ian McMillan, was the course manager at Hankley before moving on to Queenwood.

At Hankley Common, Ian, if memory serves me correct, was very involved with the removal of trees and the restoration of the heathlands.

[Mark_Rowlinson]

Mark, A friend of mine was conservation officer for that part of Surrey and they worked alongside Hankley Common on restoring other interconnecting heathland such as Thursley Common.  Interestingly, he also worked closely with the army's conservationists.  He reckoned the big military ranges in Surrey/Hampshire were very important from the conservation angle.

[Richard Pennell]

As part of my turf studies we went and looked at Hankley with a guy who runs the Surrey Heathland Trust. The estimated percentage of heathland lost in the last 200 years is roughly the same for Surrey as it is nationwide: a staggering 75-80%. It is a very rich habitat for lots of species, particularly reptiles and insects. A few months ago the Environment Agency got an injunction to temporarily halt major destruction of heathland in Surrey (to provide more housing).

The guy from the Trust was keen to emphasise how valuable the small, isolated areas represented by our heathland golf courses are, and how important it is that responsible clubs like Hankley Common and Walton Heath are spreading word of their work via the trade magazines and workshops. Its handy that such work can help retain the feel and playing conditions of courses at the same time

Incidentally, Hankley Common are so efficient at maintaining and encouraging heather that they do pretty well out of selling it on to other clubs in the area.

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