Gleneagles to get ‘exciting’ 18th hole for Ryder Cup

AN ORIGINAL proposal from Jack Nicklaus may have been too costly, taken too long to complete and caused too much disruption, but Gleneagles are still undertaking a project that’s “not for the faint-hearted” in a bid to create an exciting 18th hole for the 2014 Ryder Cup.

The final piece in the jigsaw, at least as far as the PGA Centenary Course is concerned, was finally unveiled yesterday as diggers had already started on the work that Nicklaus has suggested as his second option to transform the much-maligned closing hole at the Perthshire venue.

There will be no adding water hazards, as had been mentioned amidst the rumours and speculation in recent months, or shortening the hole to play as a par-4. Instead, in addition to a new slightly-elevated tee being built, 35,000 tonnes of soil is currently being removed to flatten out the final part of the hole, where a new green will also be located to the right of the existing one.

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All in all, it looks a big improvement on what was there before and Nicklaus, the man who originally designed the course and has been brought back on board by Gleneagles in the countdown to the Ryder Cup in just under three years’ time, has been praised for his patience as the top brass at the resort have tried to come up with something that ticks all the boxes.

“We had challenged Jack to come up with an exciting final hole to the PGA Centenary,” said Patrick Elsmie, managing director of Gleneagles Hotel. “He came back with a couple of proposals and we’ve had great dialogue with him. The final proposal is for a par 5 of 513 yards with a new elevated tee and the green dropping by 1.5 metres. We’re happy as it will make it a very exciting hole.”

Pressed about the original proposal put on the table by the 18-time major winner, Elsmie explained that it would have involved even more work than is currently being undertaken and more money as well.

He added: “That was very exciting but we felt it was going to require more work than was potentially feasible for us to undertake. We needed to look at how to constrain the changes into something that would be feasible in terms of time, money and general disruption.

“Jack and his organisation were extremely amenable in coming up with a solution to the problem, which is how do we take a piece of ground and make it something that is going to be exciting as well as being a wonderful way to finish, whether it be a championship or a match in the Ryder Cup.

“What Jack has come up with is a solution that doesn’t require a substantial change to the ground around the hole. It is to do with the amount of earth moving and the amount of tonnage that has already been taken out shows just how much work is involved in this.

“There were suggestions that we could look at a burn and a variety of different things, but the end solution is something that both we and Jack are excited about. It both works and fits with the rest of the golf course.” Weather permitting, it is hoped the new hole will be ready for play next May along with the other final changes currently being made to the course during its winter shutdown. These include the addition of a large pond on the right side of the ninth fairway and a new tee at the par-3 tenth.

“The work being done on the golf course with the Nicklaus organisation is considerable. Moving 35,000 tonnes on the 18th hole is not for the faint-hearted – it’s an awful lot of work,” noted Richard Hills, European Ryder Cup director.

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“The golf course has been there for 20 years now and we are delighted that Jack’s eyes are back in there as he did a great job at Valhalla (venue for the 2008 Ryder Cup).”

Following torrential rain, all three of the Gleneagles courses were under water yesterday but work was still ploughing on moving the mountains of earth. “Given the weather, it is moving on remarkably but challenges are always good to have as it focusses your mind,” added Elsmie.

“The cost will be several hundreds of thousands of pounds, but we don’t know the final amount at the moment. For example, the weather has been extraordinary so far this week and who knows what that will mean for the shapers, the amount of time it will take the earth movers and diggers etc? I feel sorry for [golf courses and estate manager] Scott Fenwick as he’s wringing his hands every time he wakes up and sees that it’s pouring with rain. He knows that it means another two or three days lost. The ninth, for example, was within 24 hours of being turfed and finished before the rain started. Now we need a few dry days to finish that off.”

Richard Stillwell, the European Tour’s agronomist, is working closely with Fenwick in a bid to ensure the greens, which have been criticised in the past, are in tip-top condition when the Ryder Cup is staged in Scotland for the first time since 1973.

“There’s a lot of sand injection going on, which is a practice that we used at the K Club and Celtic Manor [for the last two Ryder Cups on this side of the Atlantic],” revealed Hills. “Richard Stillwell thinks we are more advanced here with that process.

“The data on a sub-air system – the same one that Augusta National have – being tested on the tenth green is also proving quite helpful. Inputting moisture is going to be a good ally to the preparation.”

With the course taking shape and the dates now confirmed, the only question that remains to be answered is the identity of the European captain for 2014 and an announcement about that won’t be made until after next year’s match in Chicago. In the meantime, the latest in a series of high-powered planning meetings took place at Gleneagles yesterday afternoon and the European Ryder Cup organisation, in conjunction with agencies such as EventScotland, is confident the Gleneagles event, set to generate £100 million for the Scottish economy, will prove a success, both on and off the course.

“Gleneagles compares very favourably with both The K Club and Celtic Manor in terms of being the whole package for a Ryder Cup. It sits in a triangle above Edinburgh and Glasgow and below Perth. It has a motorway running right outside it and a railway line as well,” said Hills. “I guess we were slightly nervous when Scotland won the bid to stage the Commonwealth Games in 2014 but, as we worked through it, we have turned it into a positive as, combined with the Homecoming, it will be a tremendous year for Scotland.

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“There’s also been a lot of transfer of information on the infrastructure for the last Ryder Cup. Wales were very helpful to Scotland on some of the handover work.”

Meanwhile, the Johnnie Walker Championship will definitely be held at Gleneagles in 2014 but its place on the schedule, where it is likely to get an early-season slot, is still to be finalised.