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Elderslie Golf Club 63 Main Road,
Do
housing developers know just how bad some golf shots can be, and while I’m at
it, what came first the golf course or the house? On
their website, Elderslie Golf Club proudly describes the history of the course
constructed in 1909 on and around the Newton Woods, an area with strong William
Wallace connections. This sets the scene of a pleasant natural setting, ideal
for a quiet round of golf and up to a point it is. Fast forward to the present
day and you find the same pleasant natural setting enclosed by houses and of
course, it is the golf clubs fault when errant golf balls cause damage to
neighbouring properties. You may say fair enough damage is caused someone has to
pay for it but it’s not as if Elderslie have moved part of the course and
created the problem, they simply have to react to the houses. So there lies the
brief. Errant shots from the 18th tee are posing a danger to a
neighbouring property – find a safer tee location. Unlike most other designed environments,
creating safety factors in golf course design is a difficult job as planning for
that one-off unimaginably bad shot leads to the question, is anywhere safe? With
fixed objects, in this case the tee location and a house, it is easier to
predict the type and nature of the errant shots given the distances and
elevation changes involved. Factoring in the psychological factors affecting the
shot, such as fear of hazards and other visible distractions, as well as
prevailing wind direction, gives a better indication of the severity of the
errant shot. Taking all of these influences into account it became easier to
locate a safer tee location for the 18th hole. The links below show
details of the tee locations considered during the project.
Elderslie Committee had thoughts about
another area of the course where they were considering changing a poor par 4 to
a more interesting par 3. This would however drop a shot to the current par of
the course and on its own did not present a course improvement. With this in
mind it became clear that the opportunity existed to relocate the 18th
tee to its new safer location, creating a challenging par 5 from this new tee
which allowed the new par 3 to be viable without affecting the integrity of the
course. For the Critical Dimensions please click the links below: - |
