Golf Course Architecture - Issue 60, April 2020

Photo: Worplesdon Golf Club “The ultimate goal is producing a golf course that sits perfectly in its indigenous landscape” GCA spoke with Tim Lobb about the landscape and heather restoration work he has been undertaking at British golf clubs Can you let us know about your landscape restoration projects? We’re continuing to work with our established UK golf club clients and taking on new ones. What is interesting about this work, is that it becomes as much about improving the landscape of the golf course, as it does working on the golf holes themselves. On many of the Surrey courses we are working on, this obviously means addressing the issue of heather. Most heathland courses have lost quite a bit of heather in recent decades, and most are now looking at ways to get it back. This is an approach we support entirely; lowland heath is a scarce and remarkable ecosystem, and the development of the suburbs south and west of London in the last 200 years means that quite a lot of what remains is in the care of golf clubs. 30 THE INTERV I EW with Tim Lobb Photo: St George’s Hill Lobb has overseen the addition of heather on the tenth hole at St George’s Hill