Anyone played here?!
www.victoriagolf.lk
From
www.donaldsteel.com :
"The construction of the Victoria Golf Course, situated near Kandy on the beautiful island of Sri Lanka, saw a return to the construction methods of the very oldest courses, with most of the work carried out by hand. This was a method of construction with which Donald Steel & Co. was entirely happy, as this approach followed their principles of matching course design and methods of implementation to local conditions and characteristics.
This resulted in a course which cost just $600,000 US to build, a figure which includes the irrigation system. One businessman from India, who was himself co-ordinating a golf course project, declared that it was not possible to build a course for this sum. His own was costing 8 to 9 million dollars.
Machinery did exist in reasonable supply on the island although it was not the most up to date or the most reliable. Some of this machinery was used to carry out the small amount of earth movement required for the course construction but when the developers of the project took a lease upon the 540 acres they also undertook to provide employment for the 100 former estate farm workers. The method of construction evolved from there.
Mr. Bostock appointed Donald Steel and Company in January 1992 but there followed several years of frustrating negotiations with the Local Authorities. The area of land forms a peninsula jutting out into the Victoria Reservoir and the enormous Victoria Dam can be seen from many parts of the site. One incredible fact about the reservoir is that the water level can fluctuate by 260 feet in elevation. Once full supply level is reached, Water is released on a controlled basis to provide electricity and for irrigation of agricultural areas downstream.
The Reservoir Authorities posed a couple of stumbling blocks during the planning negotiations. One was a concern that the run off from the golf course would pollute the reservoir and the other concerned possible safety implications for the dam, bearing in mind the recent internal troubles within the country. The possible pollution of the reservoir water turned out to be the more serious issue and the number of greens within 100 metres of the full supply level of the reservoir was restricted to three. They insisted that the bases of these greens were lined with a plastic membrane with any drainage water being pumped at last 100 metres away form the reservoir.
With all of the planning issues finally settled, work on the course eventually began in January 1997. Donald Steel and Company had concerns about how well or accurately the design could be implemented, bearing in mind the lack of experience of golf course construction on the island. After all, the only other two courses on the island were Royal Colombo in the capital and Nuwara Eliya Golf Club in the Hill Country and both are over one hundred years old. Those fears were allayed greatly by the presence of the project manager, Tony Witham, a former tea planter form Sri Lanka who had emigrated to Australia to work within the Melbourne Parks Department. It is doubtful whether anyone else has his combination of skills with his excellent knowledge of grasses, tree surgery, tree species, fluency in the two main languages of Sri Lanka, Sinhalese and Tamil together with experience of co-ordinating the efforts of the local labour force. However, the one aspect lacking was the experience of shaping the greens, tees and bunkers to the detailed plans provided by Donald Steel and Company. As a result, a British construction expert, Nigel Ely, was employed for the first eight weeks of the project to assemble the small amount of machinery employed and to teach the local operators how to set out the construction levels and build to them. Nigel obviously imparted a great deal of information because the results were exceptional. Even after he left, the shaping continued to be first class.
After the initial shaping of greens and tees by machine, all materials were placed by hand which in some ways may have benefited the final finish of the greens. Drainage and irrigation trenches were dug by hand, fairways were cleared and planted by hand and all initial tree felling was achieved by axes rather than chain saws and machines. Sand for the rootzone of the greens was provided by a large number of small suppliers and was dredged from the Mahawelli River by men repeatedly diving to the bottom of the rivers with small bowls with which to scoop up the sand. This was sieved to achieve the correct grading and mixed with fine coconut fibre. This provided a very free draining mix. The very long period of planning negotiation allowed extensive trials of various grasses and the eventual choices were Santa Ana for fairways and tees and Tidwarf for the greens. One interesting foot note is that Mr. Bostock claimed to have brought in four or five sprigs of Tidwarf in his wash bag from Australia which over time produced the entire quantity of grass for all of the greens!"
