By Richard Humphreys |
Formby Golf Club near Liverpool, England, has reopened its seventh hole following renovation work by architects Joe McDonnell and Sam Cooper.
The pair, previously design associates at the Clayton, DeVries & Pont (CDP) firm, set up their own design practice in late 2024.
“We certainly loved working with the guys at CDP and learned so much from them,” said Cooper. “We wouldn’t be able to do this on our own without having had that experience, but it felt like the right time to go our own way.”
McDonnell added: “We’re eternally grateful to the guys at CDP for giving us that shot, especially as we were an unknown quantity. It represented a leap of faith for them. But, over that period, we managed to contribute quite strongly to the CDP output. We ended up covering quite a lot of bases between the two of us in the UK, so we felt as though that gave us the confidence to spring away.”
The Formby job came to the pair through Geoff Harris, the club’s greens chairman at the time (Harris left in early May 2026), and who is Englands Golf Coast manager. “They were looking for some different ideas and, of course, being local and a smaller firm, we were well positioned to dedicate a lot of time for a potential project,” said Cooper.
The reason for the recent renovation was to address issues with the par-four seventh hole. The fairway short of the green, which sits lower than the first section of the fairway, had problems with flooding and standing water. This issue would affect that portion of the hole’s agronomy year-round.
“They knew they wanted to raise the level of the ground there and they wanted to increase visibility of the hole because it played blind for everyone,” said Cooper. “The sixth hole is also completely blind at the approach. It’s a bit of a curiosity that they had these back-to-back holes with blind approaches. Also, the green was largely unpinnable. There was one area that they would put hole locations – in the centre of the green – but it was so severely sloped from back to front that they couldn’t circulate pin positions. They ended up with a lot of wear and tear.”
Slope analysis of the green, showcasing how the previous version was largely unpinnable (Image: McDonnell & Cooper)
McDonnell & Cooper’s solution was to extend the fairway left and right and alter the landscape so that if you were to hit a drive down the left, you would have a view of the green, but the new bunkering introduced on the left would provide somewhat of a visual illusion – the greenside bunker appears as if it is just behind the fairway bunker, but in reality it is 100 yards further down the hole. “We put a great deal of effort in to shape the bunkers so that they appeared as a pair,” said Cooper.
Left, the render shows how the fairway and greenside bunkers look deceptively close together. Right, in reality there is 100 yards between them (Image: McDonnell & Cooper)
“By expanding the right side of the fairway, those who play away from the obvious visual danger and bail out right are left with a completely blind shot to the green.”
Prior to work beginning, McDonnell created visual renders to communicate the vision to the club and its members, but also to shaper Chris Cardinal and Formby’s staff. “These renders were very important in communicating the strategy and concept that we saw clearly in our minds,” said McDonnell. “It really helped the design process and directed work to help make sure we ended up with a faithful and accurate interpretation of all those visuals.”
Cooper said: “The way Joe designed the contours around the green, it’s much harder to approach, especially the back-right tier. And there’s a further hill that obscures you and might get in the way of your ball if you’re coming in from the right side. The right is well and truly defended at the approach, but it’s not defended from the tee. Whereas the exact opposite is true for the left side. You are defended off the tee by new bunkering, but if you avoid that bunker, you’ve got clear sight of the green.”
The green is a lot more playable, although the right side is still well defended by a hill (Photo: McDonnell & Cooper)
“The green is now designed to absorb some of the change in elevation from back to front via a slight tier rather than an abrupt step,” said Cooper. “It’s much more softly tiered from front to back where the main bulk of the elevation change in that tier happens as close as possible to the near right side, where the natural mounding seems to flow into the putting surface. The knuckle at that point is where the change in elevation happens and then fans across the green as it broadens out towards the pathway to the eighth tees.”
Regarding the hole’s poor drainage, the second portion of the fairway has been lifted. In certain parts, it has been raised by around a metre. It now has a steady camber from right to left to shed the water in the way that the pair have designed.
McDonnell said: “We have tried to keep the feel and essence of the landscape there, while surgically altering things that either improve the hole from a technical perspective or add playing strategy.”
The hole reopened in April 2026.
An aerial visualisation showing the changes made to the seventh – a new fairway bunker, a wider fairway, drainage-led work at the approach and a recontoured green (Image: McDonnell & Cooper)