Yeovil Golf Club reappoints Swan Golf Designs

By Alistair August 2, 2019 07:18 Updated

The 112-year-old Yeovil Golf Club has retained the services of Swan Golf Designs to identify an improvement schedule to be rolled out across the next decade.

Yeovil GC’s 18-hole Old Course is located in Dorset, while its nine-hole Newton course sits across the border in Somerset. Suffolk-based Swan Golf Designs, with a view to producing an enhancement plan to be implemented during the next five to 10 years, will audit both courses -and the practice areas.

Golf course architect William Swan – the third generation of the golf-course-designing dynasty – said: “Yeovil Golf Club has an enviable reputation as one of south-west England’s premier golf venues, but, as with any course of its age, it’s certainly worth analysing to see if any improvements should be made to bring it in line with the demands of 21st-century golf.

“General manager Chris Huggins has asked us to carry out a full audit of the facilities as he is not looking to ‘make do and mend’ – the club is allowing up to 10 years for any changes to be made in order to minimise disruption.”

Course manager Jason Connaughton added: “With the current climate in the golf industry, we feel it is as important as ever to move with the times and progress with both courses. Having worked with Swan Golf Designs in the past it was easy to see that they would be a good fit for Yeovil Golf Club and we are looking forward to building for the future with them.”

Swan Golf Designs is one of the UK’s leading experts in golf course renovation and restoration, with projects currently underway at James Braid’s Thorpeness Golf Club & Hotel, Harry Colt’s Belvoir Park GC, and Old Tom Morris’s Moray GC, among many others.

Borne out of the collaboration between Sir Henry Cotton and Alex Swan, the family-owned Swan Golf Designs has more than 60 years of experience of designing and renovating golf courses in the UK, throughout Europe and beyond.

This article first appeared in The Golf Business