One of Australia’s oldest and most prestigious private Sandbelt golf courses has just completed Phase One of restoring original course designer Alex Russell’s layout with the help of Renaissance Golf Design (Tom Doak).
This first phase was to restore Yarra Yarra Golf Club’s 1933 version of its “Opening Seven”.

Renaissance Golf Design Concept 2017 “The Opening Seven”

Key Changes
Original bunkers reinstated on holes 1, 2 & 6
Original fairway widths restored
Expansion of tees on holes 1, 2 & 6

New Routing;
Hole 6 is now hole 1
Hole 5 is now hole 2
Hole 1 is now hole 3
Hole 2 is now hole 4
Hole 3 is now hole 5
Hole 4 is now hole 6

Picutred above - new 1st, 2nd and 3rd holes (old 6,5 and 1). Photo Credit; Gary Lisbon

Restoration Key Themes

Generally - Views across should feature greens, bunkers and the character of the land.

Tees - To integrate the tees into their surrounds as part of greater decluttering of the site. Artificial tee pads and any other visual impediments should be eliminated or suppressed.

Bunkers - To remove superfluous bunkers and/or reshape those bunkers which are out of character with the Russell style evidence elsewhere.

Fairway mowing - To adjust fairway mowing lines to fully engage with hazards and present strategic risk/reward angles into tucked hole locations. Fairway bunkers wherever possible should feel like they intrude on fairways instead of merely flanking them.

Greens - Restore altered greens where possible. Where they can’t be restored to their original location, at least rebuild them to look and play like original Russell greens elsewhere on the course. Surviving original greens should be inspected carefully for expansion to regain lost pin positions.

Interconnectedness - to judiciously open gaps in the forest for the golf and landscape to benefit.

Low Hanging Fruit - to start with relatively low disruption/ high impact works.

Phase Two

Commencing November 2018 and will complete the first seven holes.

Yarra Yarra Golf Club – www.yarrayarra.com.au