[Ben Stephens]

Hello GCA,

I am quite new to this forum, I am a qualified architect with a golf course design business. I have been working on Rutland Water's Normanton Course for the last 4 to 5 years. This course is still a work in progress. I have been in some ways influenced by pictures, comments, ideas etc from this website.

Rutland Water Golf Course is on the south shore of Rutland Water between Manton and Edith Weston - 5 miles from Oakham and Luffenham Heath Golf Club.

It is owned by a farmer - Steve Makey who has organically grown the size of the course from a par 3 course (Hambleton Course opened in 1993) then 3 additional holes 'loop' (now replaced by the current 1st and 9th holes on the Normanton Course) Then increased to 18 holes overall. Nine additional holes (back nine of Normanton Course) opened this May to increase the overall number of holes to 27 and split the 2 courses to one 9 hole par 3 course and 18 hole main course.

Have fun viewing the pictures and I welcome any comments that you have

Kind Regards

Ben Stephens


RUTLAND WATER GOLF COURSE
Normanton Course
6816 yards par 72


Course Plan by ben stephens design


View of Normanton course from clubhouse balcony

All shown yardages from white tees

FRONT NINE

HOLE 1 - 454 yards par 4 SI 8


Hole 1 - front view of green


Hole 1 - rear view of green

HOLE 2 - 512 yards par 5 SI 6


Hole 2 - view to green from fairway


Hole 2 - view from front left of green

HOLE 3 - 264 yards par 4 SI 12


Hole 3 - view from left side of fairway

HOLE 4 - 120 yard par 3 SI 18


Hole 4 - view from tee


Hole 4 - rear view of green

HOLE 5 - 354 yards par 4 SI 14


Hole 5 - view looking down fairway

HOLE 6 -358 yards par 4 SI 4


Hole 6 - view from left side of fairway


Hole 6 - front view of green


Hole 6 - side view of green


Hole 6 - rear view of green

HOLE 7 - 187 yards par 3 SI 16


Hole 7 - view from white tee


Hole 7 - front view of green


Hole 7 - rear view of green

HOLE 8 - 585 yards par 5 SI 2


Hole 8 - view from fairway


Hole 8 - front view of green


Hole 8 - front right view of green


Hole 8 - side view of green

HOLE 9 413 yards par 4 SI 10


Hole 9 - view to fairway and clubhouse in background


Hole 9 - side view of green


Hole 9 - rear view of green

[paul cowley]

Ben....the course looks quite good from the photos, and the routing is solid.

I would be interested to hear more about the course, how its doing, and maybe more about you and your business.....and about how anything from this site might have influenced your ideas. ....joking, or at least attempting to .

But regardless, welcome aboard!.......this site never seems to suffer from the addition of people who make a living by putting their ideas in the dirt for others to walk upon. [and it also means I can now leave here one person earlier...thanks].

[Jeffrey Prest]

Hi Ben, welcome to the forum and great to have someone else comparatively local around here. I live in Wisbech and know Rutland Water more for the large lateral water hazard seen in in the background to your photos - I write for 'Trout Fisherman' magazine in Peterborough.

From the photos, it looks a nice course. I'll try and look them over in more detail when the hour is not so ridiculously late.

Hope to hear more from you on the board and if you ever need to know how your designs play out for the high-handicap golfer, I will gladly work for expenses only...

[Jeff Doerr]

Thanks Ben.  WELCOME!

I like the look of the 6th green and the routing of the 16th. Is that OB down the left side of 16?

Thanks, Jeff

[Tony_Muldoon]

Ben, nice job.  Most people on here would have no idea how huge Rutland Water is, it must form an impressive backdrop. I would be interested to know more about the course and clientele.  Is it a pay and play?   Interesting greens, lots of doglegs and not too many bunkers.  Also I see some gorse there so what is soil like?



Jeffrey, just when I thought I was the only one on this group to have played Eagles and Sutton Bridge - have you any pictures of this one for the group?  Truly using the local features to construct a golf course.

[Ben Stephens]

BACK NINE

HOLE 10 - 463 yards par 4 SI 5


Hole 10 - rear view of green

HOLE 11 - 401 yards par 4 SI 15


Hole 11 - view to green from 17th green


Hole 11 - view to front right of green


Hole 11 - view to front of green


Hole 11 - view to side of green


Hole 11 - view from 12th tee


Hole 11 - rear view of green

HOLE 12 - 140 yards par 3 SI 11


Hole 12 - view from white tee


Hole 12 - view from red tee


Hole 12 - view from side


Hole 12 - rear view of green

HOLE 13 - 601 yards par 5 SI 3


Hole 13 - Proof its over 600 yards of white (510 of yellows)


Hole 13 - view from white tee, tree is middle right of fairway, green is visible just right of the bunker in background


Hole 13 - fairway


Hole 13 - blind shot, line to green is church spire in background (tiny in this photo)


Hole 13 - looking back to tee from fairway


Hole 13 - looking back to fairway 150 yards from green


Hole 13 - 150 yards to green from fairway


Hole 13 - front left side view of green


Hole 13 - rear view of green

HOLE 14 - 339 yards par 4 SI 17

(287 yards of yellow tee)


View of course from 14th fairway


Hole 14 - view to green from fairway

HOLE 15 - 439 yards par 4 SI 1


Hole 15 - view to green from front of drainage ditch ('burn' or 'creek')


Hole 15 - front view of green


Hole 15 - rear view of green

HOLE 16 - 548 yards par 5 SI 7


Hole 16 - view from white tee


Hole 16 - 150 yards from green - bunker!


Hole 16 - front view of green


Hole 16 - rear view of green

HOLE 17 - 197 yards par 3 SI 13


Hole 17 - view from white tee


Hole 17 - view from yellow tee


Hole 17 - view from 18th yellow tee


Hole 17 - side view of green


Hole 17 - rear view of green

HOLE 18 - 441 yards par 4 SI 9


Hole 18 - view from white tee


Hole 18 - view from yellow tee


Hole 18 - view to green from small central fairway bunker


Hole 18 - view to front of green - cross bunkers


Hole 18 - front left view of green


Hole 18 - rear left view of green


Hole 18 - rear view of green

IN    3569 yards par 36
OUT 3247 yards par 36

I will provide scorecard details in the next post

[Tony_Muldoon]

The most interesting land appears to be on the back 9.  Is 12 a nod to a certain hole from Stoge Poges and 17 a Redan?   Are there any other ‘homages’?

The green look to have lots of movement and promises a fun day out.  I see a few small trees in existence and it will be interesting to see if you can restrain a farmer form planitg lots more.

I will try and play this when work takes me to the area.

[Ben Stephens]

Dear All,

In reply to questions

I have been in the golf course design business since I was a teenager who started drawing up a lot of different golf course layouts and my parent suggested that I show it to the head club pro, head greenkeeper and owner of my club - Greetham Valley Golf Club. Then I was given the chance to drawn up a masterplan for a course expansion from 27 to 36 holes and a new par 3 course at Greetham back in 1997 then the course was constructed by the Gordon Pooley constructor, the owners and greenkeepers - i had very little input on the shape of greens and bunkers.

The head greenkeeper at Greetham - Adi Porter (who works miracles with grasses!) referred me to Steve Makey who wanted a 6 hole expansion to his 3 hole loop at Rutland Water back in 2002. I created 7 new holes with 6 new greens with 6 to 8 inches of rootzone (2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5th, 6th and 7th) and using the other 3 topsoil based greens. I will later send a Google Earth image showing the 'old' 3 hole loop

Then in 2004 a new 9th hole was created with a new rootzone based green close to the clubhouse as well as a new rootzone based putting green.

In 2005 - I built the new rootzone based greens for Holes 1 30 yards behind the old green and 8 in the next field 100 yards left of the old green. Also I also worked on getting planning permission for the next 9 holes.

In Jan/Feb 2006 - I worked on a routing plan and walked around the site to find the best location for the greens and tees for the next 9 holes.

Mar to Sept 2006 the holes were constructed by Gordon Pooley - contractor, Steve + Josh Makey and myself with help from my father. Most of the earthworks and moving were the greens, tees, ponds and bunkers areas. The rest were just left as it was. Minimal site construction. The subsoil is mainly ironstone/clay - which gives more moisture in the summer and its not ideal in winter as i can get very wet in certain parts.

End of Sept 2006 the greens were seeded. Mid to end of Oct 2006 the fairways and tees were seeded.

We had superb growing weather over Winter/Spring 2006/7 which enabled us to open for play a lot earlier in end of May 2007 rather than July for commercial reasons.

I have given it 3 to 5 years for the course to be in a good condition but I am happy to say its ahead of schedule and can potentially be in good condition in 2/3 years instead.

At the moment Rutland Water Golf Course is a pay as you play with season ticket holders. The green fees are £6 (£7 at weekends) for the par 3 Hambleton course which is great fun to play on and £17 (£20 at weekends) for the Normanton course.

It would not surprise me if it became a members course soon -I have shirts with 'Rutland Water Golf Club' on them but also still run on a pay as you play basis.

There have been good reviews on RWGC by Today's Golfer magazine, Pitchmark and Golf magic.

I have done some consultancy work for Burghley Park, Greetham Valley and have drawn up plans for an 18 hole course in a quarry near Stoke.


Ben
 

[Ben Stephens]

The most interesting land appears to be on the back 9.  Is 12 a nod to a certain hole from Stoge Poges and 17 a Redan?   Are there any other ‘homages’?

The green look to have lots of movement and promises a fun day out.  I see a few small trees in existence and it will be interesting to see if you can restrain a farmer form planitg lots more.

I will try and play this when work takes me to the area.

Thanks Tony,

17 is an undulating  'plateau' green more to homage of the 5th at Royal Worlington. 7th green is a Reverse Redan the green actually slopes left to right + front to back - the land was already there I just put on 6 to 8 inches of rootzone on in with a small mound to stop too may balls going through the back on the left. 12 is a certain homage to Mackenzie.

I have strongly advised the owner to put very few trees in cos the wind plays a huge part on the lower part of this course. Also trees would detract the amazing view of Rutland Water which just turned 30 years old, it seems to have been ther forever.

You mentioned Sutton Bridge, I played there in the summer in the South Lincs scratch league. I started 2-3-4! Its a nice short course with some interesting greens but I would not want to play there every day cos it would frustrate my game!

Regs

Ben

[Ben Stephens]

Here is an aerial photo of Rutland Water. It is Europe's biggest man made lake covering 3100 acres and additional 400 acres will be added to supply water to Corby's new town and Milton Keynes. Rutland Water is in the East Midlands in the middle of the Nottingham, Peterborough and Leicester 'triangle'. The location of the golf course is highlighted in blue.


Here is an aerial photo of the golf course back in 2002 - you can see the 3 hole loop that is replaced by the new 1st and 9th holes

[Ben Stephens]

Thanks Ben.  WELCOME!

I like the look of the 6th green and the routing of the 16th. Is that OB down the left side of 16?

Thanks, Jeff

Jeff

Yes it is OOB on the left side of 16 the fairway slopes from left to right which makes the drive a bit more tricky and there is a tree on the left which blocks the 'tiger' drive see photo above.

Regards

Ben

[Mark_Rowlinson]

Great to see these. We get so much high-octane stuff comparing the pros and cons of Pine Valley and Merion, Shinnecock and NGLA that it is good to be reminded that there are courses out there that are worth playing and come in at under £20 a round.

The way this course has been developed, bit by bit, seems to me so sensible - you only develop something when you can afford to. In my part of the country, Cheshire, several of the 'instant' golf courses of the 1980s and early 90s went bankrupt when interest rates rose and money became tighter. Those who had done it bit by bit survived and are still in business and they continue to improve their courses as and when they can afford to. These courses provide a much needed opportunity for those players who don't want the financial reponsibility of members' annual subscriptions, perhaps playing ten or fifteen rounds a year. Around here, in fact, they are doing so well that a number of members' clubs are struggling to fill their membership quota, with considerable financial implications.

[Ben Stephens]

Great to see these. We get so much high-octane stuff comparing the pros and cons of Pine Valley and Merion, Shinnecock and NGLA that it is good to be reminded that there are courses out there that are worth playing and come in at under £20 a round.

The way this course has been developed, bit by bit, seems to me so sensible - you only develop something when you can afford to. In my part of the country, Cheshire, several of the 'instant' golf courses of the 1980s and early 90s went bankrupt when interest rates rose and money became tighter. Those who had done it bit by bit survived and are still in business and they continue to improve their courses as and when they can afford to. These courses provide a much needed opportunity for those players who don't want the financial reponsibility of members' annual subscriptions, perhaps playing ten or fifteen rounds a year. Around here, in fact, they are doing so well that a number of members' clubs are struggling to fill their membership quota, with considerable financial implications.

Thanks Mark,

You are probably spot on. When I started working at Rutland Water I envisaged it to be an 18 hole course but having the construction in 'phases' - slow construction mode - which is also cheaper for the client as only 1 digger was required and very few labourers which also helped me to have more 'hands on' designing the course.

It was very important to have a good relationship with the client that would return for more work, even though that means losing a tenner over a rugby match!

Also when the client had sufficient funds he would then invest in it knowing if the return would be greater than what was initially invested. At the moment most of the funds are being invested into the clubhouse extension which is being slowly built at the moment with 1, 2 or even 3 builders.

I will be doing a few minor improvements to the front nine over the winter adding medal tees to certain holes. Also the greens on 11 and 17 will have mini drains slotted across the wet areas. There is no perforated piping underneath the greens its just rootzone base.

I am also a member at Greetham Valley Golf Club which had similar organic growth - 18 holes (plus par 3) in 1992, extended to 27 holes in 1995 andd then another extension to 36 holes (2 x 18 holes) in which I was involved. Then they had a hotel built which opened in 2005. Now there are over 1200 members plus a huge amount of societies. Healthy revenue!

I would love to play Shinnecock, NGLA, Merion or Pine Valley one day. I am huge fan of the links courses in the British Isles which probably has more variety of shots than any other type of courses.

Ben

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