62 himself a golfer until he has played at Ballybunion”, the club’s status and resources have grown since the Cashen course was laid out. In 2016, after completing a project on the Old course that included the rebuilding of all greens, it was time to make the Cashen gem sparkle. Having considered input from several design firms, members voted to proceed with a joint proposal from Team Niblick’s Graeme Webster – who had overseen the latest work on the Old – and Tom Watson Design, represented by Watson and golf course architect Bob Gibbons. The Cashen had become known as an uncompromising test. Golfers were frequently faced with an allor-nothing challenge: either pull off a heroic shot from one point on the dunes to another, or wave goodbye to your score. The proposal drawn up by Webster, Watson and Gibbons centred around the desire to make the course playable and enjoyable for all standards of golfer, which would involve providing more opportunities to play the ball along the ground. At the same time, the club committed to a 20 per cent increase in natural habitat on the Cashen. Working alongside environmental consultants, boundaries were established beyond which there would be no disturbance. The redesign therefore needed to achieve sometimes conflicting requirements of playability and environmental responsibility. This balancing act would present agronomic challenges too. Course manager John Bambury explains: “Pinch points are not good for fescue. To remain within the disturbance boundaries, we had to take great care with how we tied our green sites into the dunes, so that transitions were natural, the course was playable and the turf would be healthy.” Greens remain broadly in the same locations, but “their scale, contours and relationship with the surrounding landforms have been fundamentally changed”, says Webster. “They are now significantly larger, averaging almost 550 square metres and have been designed as complete green sites, with the putting surfaces and surrounds working together as one strategic composition.” BALLYBUNION CASHEN The fourth hole on the Cashen is one of the most picturesque at Ballybunion
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