Golf Business News – MacKenzie & Ebert complete North Hants refurbishment
North Hants Golf Club, already firmly rated inside the top 100 courses in England in all the established rankings, has completed a £1.5m refurbishment of its championship layout.
The improvements to the course at the 120-year-old club, which hosts the Hampshire Hog, the Hampshire Rose and Open Championship Qualifying, looks set to further enhance its standing among England’s top clubs.
The most notable change is to the bunkering, with every single hazard on the 18-hole heathland course now upgraded following a masterplan drawn up by international golf course architects Mackenzie & Ebert.
The layout’s strategic challenge has been improved with some new bunkers and others either repositioned or removed throughout the course, with a magnificent new feature bunker created on the 10th which is set to make it one of Hampshire’s most talked-about golf holes.
Several greenside bunkers have been converted into grass runoff areas, with the intention of providing golfers with one of England’s highest-quality short game challenges.
In total the course now has 55 bunkers, a reduction of 21 from the previous layout. The club’s General Manager, Rob Climas, said: “We have reduced our total sand area by 18%, but there are seven brand-new bunkers out there which will improve the strategic challenge. Using state-of-the-art construction processes, we can now be assured of high quality and consistency across all bunkers which will be presented in harmony with our traditional heathland golf course.”
Beyond bunkering, a comprehensive computer-controlled irrigation system now monitors moisture levels throughout the entire 18 holes, enabling the club to deploy water precisely wherever needed. As befits a golf club which has won multiple sustainability awards, the new irrigation system is more efficient and is able to significantly minimise water wastage whilst improving playing surfaces including the new runoff areas.
To put the finishing touch to its upgraded course, the club will be installing all-new course signage including newly designed tee markers throughout the property.
Overseeing the course is Sam Evans is one of only 15 Master Greenkeepers working in English golf today, and one of only 90 in the world.
“I am so excited that we can now take our golf course to a higher level,” said 36 year-old Evans. “With our old bunkers, every time we had 5-10mm of rain we were losing 40 man-hours getting our bunkers playable again. That’s 40 hours not rolling greens, cutting fairways, approaches and tees, and ultimately not maintaining the rest of the facility to the standards we want. Rain events of that level happened 24 times last year at North Hants, so that’s nearly 1,000 man-hours lost simply to get the bunkers back in play.
He added: “The new rubber crumb base we now have in all of bunkers is going to be a complete game-changer, freeing up time to complete other tasks. The greens will be even better to putt on, and all playing surfaces around the greens will be dramatically improved.”
Course architect Tom Mackenzie said: “In re-bunkering North Hants we sought to stiffen the challenge for elite players: it is now a far better tournament course than before. At the same time we have given the club’s members and visiting golfers who don’t hit it as far as the pros a fairer crack of the whip. By converting some greenside bunkers into grass run-off areas, we have added some doubt to the minds of the better golfers, whereas higher-handicappers will be delighted that they haven’t ended up in the sand.”
“North Hants now packs a much bigger punch than its length would suggest,” Mackenzie continued. “The golf club has done some extraordinary work to bring the golf course back to where it should be, and it can now be considered as one of the great heathland courses of southern England once again.”
Jeff Wollen, who was North Hants’ club captain when the refurbishment programme began in 2024, said: “Our 580 members cannot wait to experience the rejuvenated golf course, which Sam and the team have managed so expertly. The end of the coursework also means that we can finally have the golf course re-rated, as like many modern golf clubs we have now moved away from having gender-specific tees. Instead, five newly colour-coded sets of tees now give people the option to play North Hants at a variety of yardages, from full-length tees suitable for national tournaments, to our shortest layout at just over 5,000 yards. In the process we have created seven new forward tees for this purpose.
“Our members have played a major part in this project; not only by supplying funding, but also by displaying such patience as we implemented the courseworks in a six month period over the winter. Their reward will be a much-improved playing experience.”
Climas concluded: “This large scale investment will help North Hants to realise its true standing among England’s top 100 golf courses. The combination of the new irrigation system and the upgraded bunkers has taken an English classic golf course to the next level. Our improved playing surfaces and revised strategic challenge will, we hope, inspire many to come and re-visit us, or perhaps to come and try North Hants for the first time.”