29 value of the community asset, a final budget emerged which both sides felt was workable. When work is complete, what will the playing experience at Ingestre be like? The land for the new holes is much f latter and has virtually no trees or other landscape features compared to the existing historic parkland course. The members have come to expect a certain landscape value when playing at Ingestre Park. When surveyed, the majority of members valued the tranquillity of the site above all other factors. The mature parkland site is quite an incredible sight on a sunny day, and we tried hard, within the budgetary constraints set by HS2, to provide something of similar interest. To generate an exciting golf environment and deal with poor quality drainage, the design includes thousands of trees and a complicated series of attenuation ponds and ditches to create a landscape worthy of the original course. Trees are used in the course’s strategy, with zones dedicated to certain species to create a unique feel to each part of the course. We have used water and ditches strategically throughout the round. The new fifth hole, for example, gives golfers two options: a long draw to better access the green from the left, or playing it safe to the right of a ditch but leaving a more difficult approach. The new thirteenth, a medium-length par three, uses the ditch to split the fairway into a lower section in front, and a raised section at the rear of the green. Gently undulating fairways are surrounded by rolling mounding and copses of new trees to give this course a character worthy of its predecessor, although this will take a few years. A visualisation of the view golfers will have from the ninth tee. Top, MJ Abbott is under way with construction, which is expected to be complete by July 2023
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