holes at Royal Portrush – but our desire is always to
make it look natural and that is where I have to give
credit to DAR Golf and Graham D’Arcy, who is a world
class shaper. His vision and imagination were a real
bonus for the project.
“The other aspect of the project was recycling as
much material as we could. All of the rootzone was
from on-site, all of the turf was lifted and relaid. The
9th fairway was the only one which was turfed with
imported turf – so wherever possible we tried to
reuse existing resources rather than importing them at
extra cost to the club.”
DG: You have introduced a new ragged-looking
bunkering on some fairways… tell us about that.
ME: “When we were working at Turnberry, we found
old photographs from just after the Second World
War, when Philip Mackenzie Ross redesigned the
course. He created these rough and ragged bunkers.
They looked fantastic and we wanted to reintroduce
them. The R&A liked that kind of bunker but didn’t
want that style around the greens so we ended up
with this hybrid of having rough edge bunkering at
the edges of the fairways and pristine and revetted
bunkers at the greens and where there are closely
mown areas. I feel very comfortable that the two
styles sit well together.
“So, when it came to The Island, with its raw and
ragged landscape, our thought processes were that it
would be lovely to go with the rough edged bunker
style for the fairway hazards. This would mirror some
of the big sand scars you can see in the landscape.
We actually converted some fairway bunkers as a
preliminary job, on holes 10, 15 and 17, and the Club
seemed to like them, so we kept going with that style.
“We added two bunkers to the 3rd - now a par five.
It’s worth noting that the character of that green is
more par five than par four as the green is perched
up there with a steep bank on the right. It gives the
big hitters a real test if they go for the green in two.
Those two new bunkers define the tee shot a lot
more and we’ve heard it is one of the most popular
changes. It has given the hole a fresh look.
“It’s a great attribute of The Island that it doesn’t
need many bunkers. The character of the ground is so
good that it’s not reliant on them so that the overall
total is far fewer than at other links courses.”
DG: Of the changes you have made to the front nine
what do you regard as the most important?
ME: “It has to be the 8th and 9th. We created one
and a half new holes. That was the bones of the
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