GOLF COURSES
Greens rebuild project at Javier Arana ’ s last course
Aloha Golf Club hires Lobb + Partners for rapid rebuild of course ’ s greens
loha Golf Club in
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Marbella , Spain , the last course designed by the legendary architect Javier Arana , has hired Lobb + Partners for a major greens rebuilding project . Construction work will start in April and is scheduled to finish in July , with a staged reopening of the course expected during August and September . All eighteen greens will be rebuilt in a single phase of work with TeeOne bentgrass laid – the turf has already been grown in an offsite nursery .
Arana produced only ten courses during his thirty year career as a golf architect . He was hired to build the Aloha course in 1972 , at the age of 67 , and construction started that year . He last visited the course in May 1974 , at which point seeding of the greens had not yet started , because of a shortage of water to grow them in . Arana died in January 1975 and never saw the course completed ; it opened that October .
The Aloha club is very proud of its heritage and its status as the last project of Spain ’ s greatest designer . But the course ’ s greens have been a challenge for some years : half of them slope at more than five per cent , an untenable level of pitch at modern
Photo : Alfonso Erhardt
The Aloha club is very proud of its heritage and its status as the last project of Spain ’ s greatest designer .
heights of cut . Agronomist Luis Cornejo of Surtec , who will serve as project manager and agronomist for the rebuild , says that when the course opened , the greens were typically cut at 5.5 mm and stimped at six and a half feet . According to Alfonso Erhardt , author of ‘ The Golf Courses of Javier Arana ’, the architect drew detailed plans of the greens . There is , however , some debate as to how precisely the
“ final surfaces reflected his intent as he died before openingand several of them have been reworked in the intervening years .
“ When we were first invited to review plans for this ambitious eighteen hole green rebuild last spring we were very impressed with the club ’ s planning and vision for the project ,” said Tim Lobb , principal of Lobb + Partners . “ The course is set in a rolling and striking Andalusian landscape and the Arana strategic diversity on the greens was evident from the onset with a variety of steps , tilts and internal contours providing challenge and interest to the golfing experience . But at modern day green speeds , the slopes are just too steep , so our aim is to soften them while retaining their strategic intent . I particularly like the way the greens are segmented into differnt zones with noses , tiers and low / high spots creating dividers , which we will emphasise in the revised surfaces and pinnable locations .
New and enlarged practice putting greens will also be constructed as part of the project and the area surrounding this slightly rejigged to create a better starting / arrival environment . Britishbased firm CJW Golf will carry out the build , and Luis Cornejo of Surtec will
26 GroundskeepingJournal . co . uk | May / June 2023