On February 25th 2010, Thomson Perrett & Lobb hosted a bunker seminar with various industry professionals at Burhill Golf Club in Surrey. Please read below for further details
PRESS RELEASE
TPL host industry leaders to talk bunkers
(London, United Kingdom – March 5, 2010) Thomson Perrett & Lobb, the golf course design practice founded by five-times Open Champion Peter Thomson, hosted golf industry leaders for a seminar on bunkering, embracing the three disciplines of design, construction and maintenance.
The seminar, held at Burhill Golf Club, Surrey, brought together golf course architects such as Dr Martin Hawtree (Hawtree Ltd), Martin Ebert (Mackenzie Ebert), Gary Johnston (European Golf Design) and Greg Letsche (Els Design) and golf course managers from Sunningdale, Wentworth, The Berkshire, Walton Heath and The Emirates Golf Club to name but a few.
The 29 delegates joined TPL’s Tim Lobb and Andrew Goosen to discuss the various aspects of bunkering, and listen to presentations from companies specialising in the bunker construction.
Representatives from bunker lining manufacturers (BunkerMat, Sportcrete, On Course Solutions) were given the floor to explain their products and the benefits of bunker liners, while Nigel Wyatt of MJ Abbott discussed bunker construction techniques and Charles Henderson from the Sports Turf Research Institute explained the importance of particle size and shape in bunker sand.
Presentations from industry experts were educational and topical
A lengthy round table open discussion brought proceedings to a close, with a number of important topics debated, including the merits of bunker maintenance, bunker renovation and course length.
Tim Lobb, who chaired the seminar, said: “We wanted to bring golf industry leaders together, and the subject of the seminar is one close to every course architect, developer and manager. Bunkers have to be designed, built and maintained and to have such knowledge in one room discussing the subject so deeply, intensely and passionately was great.’
“Everyone was quite open in the discussions so we could really go into depth on the issues brought up.”
Craig Haldane, The Emirates Golf Club course superintendent, travelled from Dubai to be at the seminar.
He said: “It was amazing to have so many industry experts sitting around a table talking about a simple hazard, it was well worth the trip.”
TPL are planning to host similar seminars on various topics of golf course design and management in the future.
Delegates of the TPL bunker seminar in front of Burhill's magnificent clubhouse
Written on March 5th, 2010 by Tim and stored in Golf News, Philosophy, Press Releases, Tim Lobb
Tim Lobb reports on the TPL site visit to El Ein Bay on The Red Sea in Egypt where TPL are currently building an 18 hole resort style golf course.
Construction progress has been steady over the last year on the resort style golf course that we have designed and are now building at El Ein Bay. We have 11 holes shaped, drained and irrigated.
We are now applying sandcap and will start grassing the course in the coming days.
Please see below construction photos taken by Tim Lobb during this week (1-4 March, 2010) onsite at El Ein Bay.
View from back tee of par 5, 3rd hole.
Extensive fairway bunkering on hole 3 finely shaped ready for grassing
Raised green complex of hole 3 ready for grassing to commence
Tad King, our shaper/ project manager/ general onsite go to man sharpening up his flop shot on our 15 acre Platinum Paspalum turf nursery
Even Tim is allowed to play some shots. Pulled it left into the lake, well the liner anway
Look forward to keeping our readers updated on this course and the progress that we are achieving. Looking forward to seeing some grass down.
Written on March 5th, 2010 by Tim and stored in Our projects, Tim Lobb, Travels
News from our Melbourne office – Thomson Perrett.
Victoria Golf Club (Melbourne, Australia) honoured its most famous member by unveiling a bronze statue of five-times British Open champion Peter Thomson AO, CBE .
Peter at Victoria Golf Club in front of statue
Thomson’s five British Open wins between 1954 and 1965 rank him second to Harry Vardon who won the title six times between 1896 and 1914. Such was his dominance of the title in the 1950s that in the years that he did not win between 1952 and 1958 he was runner-up.
Peter Thomson - Champion of the British Open 5 times
The unveiling was attended by Thomson, wife Mary, daughter Deirdre, members celebrating the club’s Foundation Day, MPs Andrew Robb and Murray Thomson, Bayside Mayor James Long, and the CEOs of Golf Australia and the PGA, respectively Stephen Pitt and Max Garske.
Melbourne sculptor Louis Lauman took six months to produce the work, drawing his subject in charcoal and using Thomson family scrapbooks to capture the swing and accurately portray the clothes and equipment of the era.
The statue is 1.1 times (110%) life size, sculpted in clay and cast in silicon bronze at the Fundere Fine Art Foundry in West Footscray.
Golfing greatness is measured by major championships won and longevity in the game. Thomson’s first victory of note was his club championship at Royal Park in Melbourne at the age of 16 in 1946.
His last win came in the 1988 Seniors British PGA Championship and he won somewhere in the world at least once every year from 1950 until 1973. In 1985 he dominated the US PGA Senior Tour with an unprecedented nine victories.
His brilliant playing career, with victories spanning five decades, was capped in 1998 when he led the International Team to its only success against the might of United States in the Presidents Cup at Royal Melbourne.
Along the way he found time to design and build more than 100 golf courses around the world, serve as chairman of the Australian Professional Golfers Association for 32 years, run for Parliament in Victoria and pioneer the professional golf circuit in Asia.
A silky swing at The Home of Golf - St Andrews
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