Mackenzie & Ebert Ltd, golf course architects, have helped Royal Lytham & St Annes Golf Club to prepare its course for its 11th Open Championship. This has involved a significant amount of work carried out over a two year period. It has included a new 7th green, dune construction, the addition of new tees and adjustments to bunkering on most holes to maintain the test of this great old links.
A booklet describing the changes can be downloaded using the following link: http://mbf.co/f7w76
As advisors to 5 of the 9 Open Championship courses and many other top courses across Europe, Mackenzie & Ebert Ltd have considerable experience in this type of course work.
Mr. Graham Cochrane, Secretary of Royal Lytham & St Annes Golf Club comments: “The Club appointed Mackenzie & Ebert to advise on our course because they understood the competing demands of the needs of the best players in the world and those of our membership. The work was quite extensive and yet it remains entirely in character with the rest of the course and the members have already enjoyed the changes for two years. We look forward to hosting The Open and to see how the course performs.”
The partner in charge was Martin Ebert. “It has been a huge privilege to work on a great links like Royal Lytham and St Annes. We aimed to toughen up the test of the course from the tee on many holes by fine-tuning the drive bunkering, adding dunes and adding back tees. The most significant change was moving the green back on the par five 7th, as the old hole was being over-powered.”
The course has been lengthened from 6,905 yards for the 2001 Open to 7086 yards with much of that length being added to the par fives.
Mackenzie & Ebert www.mackenzieandebert.co.uk