Golf Course Architecture - Issue 64, April 2021

36 TEE BOX Apes Hill revival emphasises beauty of Barbados The golf course at Apes Hill Club in Barbados is undergoing a renovation by golf course architect Ron Kirby, with nine holes expected to open this year and the full eighteen in early 2022. The golf course first opened in 2008, part of a development by Landmark Land Company on an old sugar plantation close to the island’s highest point. It closed in 2017 before the club and residential community was bought in 2019 by Glenn Chamandy, founder of Montreal-based clothing firm Gildan Activewear. A reported $60 million investment followed, half of which would be spent on the golf course, and renovation work began in late 2019. Roddy Carr, who is coordinating the golf project, said: “The key focus is to make golf at Apes Hill the most enjoyable golfing experience in the Caribbean. This means softening the golf course considerably by reducing the slopes on greens, eliminating unplayable bunkers and accentuating all the natural assets of the 450-acre site. This includes spectacular unique vistas over Barbados’s wild Atlantic east coast; deep, winding gullies that wind The green on the par-three sixteenth sits on the edge of a lake their way through the golf course that are filled with monkeys and tropical wildlife and plants; beautiful natural coral rock formations; and being able to see both the Atlantic Ocean and the Caribbean Sea on several holes. “The goal was to get a minimum of 10 ‘wow’ holes from the finished product, which I believe we will accomplish. There will also be over 15 acres of farm produce growing in ‘out of play pockets’ around the golf course. This fits with our farm-to- table agenda and supports the 50-acre farm which we shall also be adding.”