Giulia Ferroni reaches halfway point of 10-year renovation at Cirencester

Giulia Ferroni of Leeds Golf Design is at the halfway point of a 10-year renovation project at Cirencester Golf Club in Gloucestershire, England.

Work began in 2020 once Ferroni had completed her masterplan.

“The renovation was driven by a desire to modernise a golf course that had become a little tired, while also creating more interest, particularly around greens,” said general manager Leighton Walker. “We see this project as essential to ensuring the course copes with the next 20 to 50 years of its life, while enhancing the playing experience for golfers. In places it will boost the challenge and, in other areas, make the course more approachable for the average player. We are on a beautiful piece of ground in the Cotswolds and it’s important that we sit naturally on that site while opening up the vistas of the wider countryside.”

The project began during the UK’s Covid lockdown period with the club’s greenkeeping team handling construction and Ferroni approving work via drone videos. Since then, work has been completed over several autumn-winter windows. Callum McKie is responsible for shaping, with an in-house team finishing and laying turf. Bunkermat liner has been installed in all sand hazards by Whitemoss Eco.

“The course at Cirencester is an original James Braid design, and one of the aims of the masterplan is to reshape bunkers, green surrounds and other features suitable for modern needs but maintaining the original style whenever possible,” said Ferroni. “The course layout was also changed in the mid-1990s when three new holes were built on adjacent land. The style of those holes is not consistent with the rest of the layout, so we will address that and provide a uniform course presentation.”

Six holes have now been fully completed, including greens expansion, bunkers, tees, reshaping surrounds and creating some hollowed-out areas around greens and in the fairways, which Ferroni says resemble Willie Park Jr’s ‘pots’ at Huntercombe.

Some greens have been expanded to increase the number of pin positions as well as reinstate old locations that had been lost. “Perhaps the biggest changes have been at holes nine and ten where our reshaping of the greens surrounds has really transformed those complexes,” said Ferroni. “Our work has changed the way they are played, the strategy and the look, especially with the reshaped bunkers and grassy features.

“One design principle I am keen on is to provide a wide collection of hazards that result in a variety of shots, especially in relation to the ground game. That is why grassy hazards can be just as effective as sand bunkers, especially runoffs areas around greens.”

Walker added: “We have endeavoured to keep the quirks of the original Braid design, such as the squared-off corners on greens. In some instances, these have been softened slightly to allow for better maintenance.”

A key goal from the club’s perspective is to minimise maintenance on bunkers – this is being achieved by reducing the number of bunkers as well as standardising the construction style they are all built to. “The reshaping of bunkers is being done in harmony with Braid’s principles as well as to provide optimal playing conditions,” said Ferroni. “We also want to make the course enjoyable for every skilled player; not easier but fairer. Bunkers have been repositioned to be more in play for the best golfers without over penalising the high handicappers. On the tenth hole, for instance, we removed the short fairway bunkers and moved the forward tee 40 yards further down the hole to make the par five easier for the short hitters.”

“There hasn’t been a big emphasis on ‘toughening up’ the course, it has quite often been about creating more interest both visually and from a playability point of view,” said Walker. “Having said that, the eighth hole, completed this year, has seen some changes which will make players think much more, both from the tee and on the approach to the green. Bunkers are visually more striking and, in most instances, encroach on greens more than they did previously. Some bunkers have been removed and replaced with hollowed out areas or broken ground to create a different type of hazard.”

Another goal of the renovation has been to create more options during winter play. “With greens located close to tees, traffic management is sometimes an issue,” said Walker. “New winter tees have been created, with an emphasis on the par threes. Some of the par-three tees have also been enlarged given that the golf course is a busy one.”

The project has also included the removal of some trees and the restoration of native calcareous grassland. “Woodland management not only promotes healthy turf growth but also allows us to open up views and to provide more options for the game,” said Ferroni.

Undertaking work in phases has helped to limit disruption to play. “The phased approach was adopted to make the project viable and possible – it could well stretch out to around 10 years with an average of two holes completed each year,” said Walker. “A hybrid construction model (shaper and in-house team) was chosen to keep costs down and to ensure a high-quality finish.”

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