Ally,
I used to be a member at Horsley Lodge just north of Derby, for almost 20 years from when it opened in 1991. An interesting routing making great use of the rolling land and streams that crossed the former farmland, but generally uninspiring. That is until after around 8 or 9 years, in came Peter McAvoy to redesign the course.
He kept the routing pretty much as it was, with a few minor tweeks, re-contoured a couple of fairways, changed fairway bunkers and put in new tees, but the biggest change was the greens, which were also done with Craig Cooke. Each green was totally rebuilt and they are one of the most interesting set of greens I've ever played. The first has a false front hidden behind a bunker with a ridge running down the middle from front to back. The second had a big bite out of the left centre so you could almost "wall of death" a put around this to a back left hole location. The third was a big green with the back right portion as a much higher tier than the rest. The fourth a big back to front slope and a ridge running all the way down the middle from front to back... and so on!
The course plays about 6,400 yards and is relatively straightforward parkland but the holes can be tucked away in some interesting positions such that the first year the Derbyshire PGA event was played there, most pros were probably going into the bulk of the par 4s with a short iron and yet I think the winning score was a couple over. So thanks to a very interesting set of greens McAvoy turned a relatively dull course into probably one of the best in the County.
I met him briefly at the time and recall him as a nice guy, gentle character, but with a strong conviction for what he was going to deliver. I also recall he discussed widening a couple of fairways and adding centre line bunkers, with the narrower side giving the best angle in. These were never built but it certainly made an impression on me with my developing interest in golf course architecture at the time.
Cheers,
James