M+E to work on NSW

[Ben Stephens]

Just saw todays news on Planet Golf

https://www.planetgolf.com/news/mackenzie-and-ebert-to-develop-course-improvement-plan-for-nsw-golf-club

paging Scott Warren .....

[Tom_Doak]

That's interesting, because they are not design/build guys, so they will have to rely on someone Down Under to help them realize their plans. 


That was part of the problem with Martin Hawtree's work at Royal Melbourne . . . he didn't have his usual contractors and shapers, and he didn't have much time to spend with the crew who were actually building things for him.


I do wish them luck.  It's a great club and there is a lot of room for improvement to the course.  The process just took too long for us, and we got busy with lots of other things.

[David_Elvins]

That's interesting, because they are not design/build guys, so they will have to rely on someone Down Under to help them realize their plans. 


That was part of the problem with Martin Hawtree's work at Royal Melbourne . . . he didn't have his usual contractors and shapers, and he didn't have much time to spend with the crew who were actually building things for him.


I do wish them luck.  It's a great club and there is a lot of room for improvement to the course.  The process just took too long for us, and we got busy with lots of other things.

 If the project is to rebuild 17 or 18 greens over one summer, isn’t there no structural limitation that would encourage the use of local shapers or limited oversight over the work, as happened with Hawtree at RM where the scale of work was much smaller?


One would imagine that either they or the club would be pressing for the same team that did the work at turnberry.

[Andrew Harvie]

That's interesting, because they are not design/build guys, so they will have to rely on someone Down Under to help them realize their plans. 


That was part of the problem with Martin Hawtree's work at Royal Melbourne . . . he didn't have his usual contractors and shapers, and he didn't have much time to spend with the crew who were actually building things for him.


I do wish them luck.  It's a great club and there is a lot of room for improvement to the course.  The process just took too long for us, and we got busy with lots of other things.

It happened at Hamilton with Mackenzie & Ebert. With the pandemic and an upcoming Canadian Open, M&E did all their obligations via zoom to double check the project went ok. I think they've seen it now, but did not see any of the project under construction

[Alan FitzGerald CGCS MG]

That's interesting, because they are not design/build guys, so they will have to rely on someone Down Under to help them realize their plans. 


That was part of the problem with Martin Hawtree's work at Royal Melbourne . . . he didn't have his usual contractors and shapers, and he didn't have much time to spend with the crew who were actually building things for him.


I do wish them luck.  It's a great club and there is a lot of room for improvement to the course.  The process just took too long for us, and we got busy with lots of other things.

It happened at Hamilton with Mackenzie & Ebert. With the pandemic and an upcoming Canadian Open, M&E did all their obligations via zoom to double check the project went ok. I think they've seen it now, but did not see any of the project under construction

I did a bunch of work during the pandemic via zoom and regular pictures with Rees and his associate Bryce. It worked well as we were able to keep the project going, building/shaping it as they wanted and they were happy with the results/progress when there were able to visit as the restrictions started to lift.

[Matt_Cohn]

there is a lot of room for improvement to the course.

Like what? Question for anyone, not just Tom.

[Scott Warren]

there is a lot of room for improvement to the course.

Like what? Question for anyone, not just Tom.

The course is essentially a world top 10-20 site with a world top 80 golf course on it (the rankings say world top 40, but that's extremely generous).

The major issue with the course are:

• the general effects of the wide variety of architectural influences (Mackenzie, Apperly, Newton, Grant & Spencer, Greg Norman & Bob Harrison, Greg Norman & Ryan Van Der Veen, Doak & Schneider
• a failure to manage sand splash/topdress issues during the 30-year tenure of the previous super that has led to greens including 1, 8, 9, 10, 14 and 17 becoming more severe (on an already sever, high-wind site) than was intended
• Some severe fairway slopes (1 and 14 particularly) that don't function well at modern heights of cut
• The fact that the 2nd green is a complete embarrassment, and
• Norman's most recent work at 3, 4 and 18 produced holes and greens that are both poor in and of themselves and also out of keeping with the course at large

Only posting links because it's relevant to a direct question, but Matt Mollica and I have gone over a lot of it in some depth in our podcast Australian Golf Passport.

We have:

• touched on Doak and Schneider's split with NSWGC and the likelihood of M&E replacing them on episode 2 (from the 8:28 mark), and
• devoted a full hour to NSWGC including it's architectural history and the way forward from here in its own episode.

Links above are to Apple Podcasts, Spotify users can click here for discussion of the Doak split and here for the full episode on NSWGC.

[Jeff Schley]

Good insights for us Scott.  I have had just a singular play, but for those that haven't it really is a great site.

[Jaeger Kovich]

That's interesting, because they are not design/build guys, so they will have to rely on someone Down Under to help them realize their plans. 


That was part of the problem with Martin Hawtree's work at Royal Melbourne . . . he didn't have his usual contractors and shapers, and he didn't have much time to spend with the crew who were actually building things for him.


I do wish them luck.  It's a great club and there is a lot of room for improvement to the course.  The process just took too long for us, and we got busy with lots of other things.

It happened at Hamilton with Mackenzie & Ebert. With the pandemic and an upcoming Canadian Open, M&E did all their obligations via zoom to double check the project went ok. I think they've seen it now, but did not see any of the project under construction

I did a bunch of work during the pandemic via zoom and regular pictures with Rees and his associate Bryce. It worked well as we were able to keep the project going, building/shaping it as they wanted and they were happy with the results/progress when there were able to visit as the restrictions started to lift.

Isn’t their office only like 1.5 hrs from your course by car?