The sixth, a dog leg left had until recently a large tree guarding the corner and protecting the big bombers from having a straight crack at the green. The tree has now gone and some players are asking “is the hole now too soft”?

Chris Pitman’s master plan notes in the commentary the suggested option to toughen up this hole. The ultimate plan is to steer play away from the 7th fairway by forcing the tee shot right and encouraging approach play from the right also. This is achieved by the positioning of key fairway bunkers that will penalise a risky shot. This strengthens the landing zone and creates more options for play. These changes are not part of the current 5-Year Development Plan.

The tree that has gone was dying, the result of being the lowest part of the course and constantly subjected to wet areas. Extensive work has since been done on drainage in this part of the course but the water table will always be a factor. It was planned to remove the tree after monitoring progress and the decision to remove it sooner was to take advantage of firm conditions so as not to rip up all the good work that has been done in this area with overland traffic.