Cumberwell Park Golf Club in Wiltshire, England, has opened its new nine hole par three course. The course was designed by architect James Edwards, and represents his first completed new golf course since starting his own design practice a few years ago.

The new nine was built, like much of Cumberwell’s existing 36 holes, using importation of inert landfill. Edwards told GCA that this played an important part in the design of the holes. “The design process was very organic,” he said. “At first, it was little more than stakes in the field for tees and greens, and the importation drove a lot of the shaping. We’d arrive on site to find many loads of material had been placed, and we would respond to that in terms of creating features.”

One feature which Edwards and the club were set on was an island green at the bottom of the property, next to the main entrance to the Cumberwell club. “I know island greens have been done to death, but it is a great sight for people to see as they drive into the club,” he said.

Cumberwell’s head professional requested that the course routing should permit as many short loops of holes as possible for teaching purposes, and Edwards explained that was a key part of his design. “The routing process was quite difficult – a big Wessex Water pipeline goes through the middle of the site, and we had to move greens and tees to cope with that – but the result is that it can be played in many different ways, from two holes right up to nine,” he said. “I’m really proud of what we have achieved here. It serves lots of different purposes – elite players can use it for practice and ordinary golfers will get a lot of fun from it.”