Golf Course Architecture - Issue 56: April 2019

“The same applied to the fairways. They had become almost ridiculously narrow over the years. We scaled Alison’s plans and overlaid them. They were enormously wide. The 1960s aerial photograph also showed much wider fairways although not as wide as Alison had drawn. Following consultation with the committee, we settled on significant widening of the fairways although there was concern that this would make the course too easy. We have countered that by adding fairway bunkers to tighten the landing areas for the better players. While this falls out of the ‘restoration’ concept, we feel that this is what Alison would have recommended if he had the opportunity to revisit the course today with a knowledge of how the game is now played.” Careful consideration has been paid to tree clearance. “There is no doubt that we found too many when we made our initial visit and that significant clearance was required but the site Alison found did have a significant amount of trees and the original course was tree-lined to a large degree. Also, some of the trees which have grown or been planted have added to the beauty of the course,” said Ebert, adding that Japanese pine trees have been given more freedom to be admired. Construction work, which was awarded to Japanese firm Takenaka, began in early January 2019, and the plan is for all greens to be seeded by mid-May with all other areas turfed. The reopening of the course is expected to be October. Download a report on Hirono prepared by Martin Ebert for GCA at: www.golfcoursearchitecture.net/hirono Photos: Mackenzie & Ebert MetroHouse,Northgate,Chichester,WestSussex,PO19 1BE,England Teleph one :+44 (0)1243531901 E-mai l: pit chandrun18@aol.com Web site: www.mackenzieandebert.c om ArticleRegardingTheRestorationOfTheGolfCourseHironoGolfClub ByMartinEbert March 2019 --o0o-- Ifwewere fortunate to becommissioned,we knew that thiswould be a project torelishwhen we firsthadcontactwith thecommitteeatHirono.Thecommitteewasnamed ‘TheRestoration Committee’.Nothing could be closer to our hearts, especiallywhenwe saw the planswhich C.H.Alison had drawn up and also the incredible archiveofphotographswhich theClub held from the 1930s, shortly after the course opened on 19 th June 1932.Alison had been asked to designTokyoGolfClub but, during his 3months in Japan, hewas asked to look at numerous other sites for courses andHirono turnedout to be themost famous of them. C.H.Alison The seventh hole, above, as it was laid out by Alison; left, before renovation work began; and top, with the large hazard that Alison originally designed being recreated READ MORE 17