Foshan designer learning from scouting mission
2014-10-26 19:42:52

This week's host venue might only be two years old, but Foshan Golf Club has already garnered plenty of plaudits, a fact that satisfies its designer – Tony Cashmore – no end.

He is here this week on a fact finding mission as he studies the great and good of the European Challenge Tour to see how they go about dissecting his signature Chinese layout.

Measuring 7,148 yards and boasting some of the most testing and well prepared greens of the season, the par 72 layout has come in for high praise from the players teeing it up this year at the Foshan Open.

However Cashmore takes just as much satisfaction from the kind words of all golfers, no matter their ability, which shows in a design that has been put together with amateurs and professionals in mind.

“They needed a golf course here that could be played by ordinary members, but even then, they had the idea that they would want to hold a tournament such as this one day,” said the Beijing-based Melbourne native. “So we designed a golf course that would be very flexible, as for 361 days a year ordinary people need to get enjoyment and stimulation and satisfaction from playing this golf course.

“We set out to create this course in a very short time frame, and we had some excellent shapers and scientific advisors on environmental issues, so we were able to use this wonderful piece of land to create a course with lots of ups and lots of downs.

“It is amazing to hear the comments of very good golfers here this week though, saying how much they enjoy it and how different this course is to those they play back in Europe and here in China, which we are thrilled to hear.

“When we design a green we always think of six to eight pin positions, relatively flat areas on each, but we have no control over where the Tour put the pins this week. I have to say – and I’m sure some of the players would agree with me – that the locations used this year are really very difficult.

“It is pleasing though to hear some of the players say that these are the best prepared greens they have played on all season.”

Cashmore has returned to his beloved Foshan Golf Club this week to see how it stacks up with the pros, get their feedback, as well as watch them take to the links.

He has already seen areas for improvement, amendments to be made, on a course that has evolved over the past year in preparation for the second edition of the tournament.

“Somebody asked me once how I decide where to put the bunkers on a golf course, and I said that I want to put them where the good golfers don’t want them,” said the 72 year old. “Located in those positions they will not trouble ordinary golfers too much, as they are too far, but I am watching so many of the golfers this week finding those bunkers. I’m sorry, but that makes me happy.

“Ahead of this year’s event we prayed to the heavens to stay dry, but we also did a lot of work improving the greens. This course is still only a little over two years old, and normally you wouldn’t hold a tournament like this on a course until it was five.

“So we did a lot of work on the greens, a lot of work on the drainage, and we have planted trees as a backdrop to – for example – the fifth hole, but we have also taken a lot of trees out where we had shade problems with the turf.

“This week I am here to look at the course, to see the little things that need to be improved. We’re thinking of having a new tee on number seven – which is an exclusive, by the way – up on the hill.

“When you hear so many people happy about your course though, no matter how well they play golf, if they say to you they enjoyed it and would want to come back and play again, then that is very satisfying indeed.”