Seven year retainer for Marnoch

29 July 2011

Golf Club Heelsum in the Netherlands has hired British designer Steve Marnoch on a seven year contract to complete the upgrading of the course.

Marnoch’s initial two year project at Heelsum involved returning original heathland features to the golf course, which had been constructed on farmland from which much of the character had been removed.

Since the last ice age, the landscape had evolved on a substrate of pure glacial sand, but in the twentieth century, agricultural land use produced a rich topsoil layer.

The initial remodel reinstated several original ‘dry dales’ (glacial melt water channels), using them as strategic features on some holes. Substantial areas of rich topsoil were removed, creating new areas of bare sand and heath.

The heathland patches contribute to the creation of a new network of wildlife corridors, allowing species to move between the north of Holland and the Rhine Valley. The course was selected by the R&A as an example of biodiversity and featured on the Golf Environment Organization’s website.

Marnoch’s initial works at Heelsum were profiled in GCA in 2010. Read the original article.