Home POLITICS Hamilton Golf and Country Club announces $11 million in on-course improvements – TheSpec.com

Hamilton Golf and Country Club announces $11 million in on-course improvements – TheSpec.com

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Hamilton Golf and Country Club announces $11 million in on-course improvements – TheSpec.com

You might expect Rhod Trainor to be worried when he looks down on the 18th fairway and sees a network of increasingly well-worn footpaths criss-crossing historic Hamilton Golf and Country Club.

But, the course superintendent said it actually works out “great.”

With the club about to begin an $11 million project to overhaul the greens, bunkers and drainage on all 27 holes, he needs some of those muddy ribbons. “A lot of those trails, when you do a construction project, you have what is called a haul road, because contractors have to be able to move around.

“So, we’re just going to keep them,” he added. At least on the south nine.

HGCC officials on Saturday announced the project, which will be overseen by English golf course architect Martin Ebert — an expert in Harry Colt designs. Work is expected to start in September.

Eighteen holes will remain open throughout construction, which starts on the south nine — the back nine of the Canadian Open course. The west nine, or the front nine, will be renovated next followed by the east nine, which is not part of championship play.

The project is expected to be completed by 2021, leaving ample time for grow-in before the tournament returns to HGCC in 2023.

Asked about a connection between the work and potential bids to host additional championships, president Sean McDonough said the club has “no plans for post-2023.”

“We are still on schedule to host the tournament again in 2023 and look forward to that, but otherwise I think if we get the improvement plan done properly and the next Open, I think we’ll just probably take a rest for a while and let our members just enjoy this great place,” he added.

Those who spend a lot of time on the course will likely notice the changes, which include converting the Poa annua greens to bentgrass and removing and reconstructing bunkers. But they will nonetheless be subtle.

Ebert said the idea is to take the greens, “which are beautifully positioned in every instance,” and make them a little more interesting, “in the same style that Harry Colt would have done if he had the chance.”

“This was really more about enhancement than change,” added past-president Chris Hamel. “Everybody loves the course as it is, but I think the subtlety of the enhancement that we can bring forward in this project is going to really top things off.”

Between the cost and scale, the project was a tough sell for members, but McDonough said it’s something you have to do if you want to keep up with your neighbours — as HGCC does.

“Everyone else is doing stuff to their golf courses, too,” he said. “Burlington is working hard there, and Mississauga has new bunkers and new greens just four or five years ago, and St. George’s is undergoing another bunker project — and those are the golf courses that we like to compare ourselves to.”

Aside from the culling of some 1,000 trees as part of an environmental restoration a few years ago, little major restructuring has taken place on the west and south nines since the course was designed more than a century ago. The east nine was added in 1974.

Club officials also on Saturday announced that Trainor, who is retiring at the end of the year after three decades as superintendent, will stay on as a consultant through 2020.

“Luckily, he has acquiesced and is going to stick around for another year as our project manager,” said McDonough. Associate superintendent Jordan Kitchen, meanwhile, will supersede Trainor in the interim.

Back to those footpaths, though — specifically the ones now cutting through the east and west nines, which will remain open to members once construction gets started. According to Trainor, the damage is largely contained and will be easily fixed once Golf Canada dismantles the tournament infrastructure.

That said, the new timing of the Open — early June rather than late July — will make things “interesting,” since it means his staff will be seeding and sodding in the heat of the summer. “So that will be a challenge.”

That said, he added, “It’s just grass. It always grows back.”

‘It’s fine’

HGCC superintendent happy with state of course following concert Friday

Aside from some cigarette butts and beer tabs, the turf at Hamilton Golf and Country Club looked to be in good shape following the Florida Georgia Line concert.

Roughly 20,000 fans flooded the fairway to see the country stars take the stage following the second round of the Canadian Open Friday. Another 15,000 or so are expected to be on hand Saturday when homegrown rockers the Glorious Sons take the stage.

The first hole on the east nine, where the concerts take place, is the “hardest, driest part of the golf course,” said course superintendent Rhod Trainer. “You can drive a truck down the middle of the fairway in the summertime.”

The one thing that could make the turf there susceptible to damage is rain, “and it hasn’t,” he added. “I’m totally happy with it. It’s fine.”

tpecoskie@thespec.com

905-526-3368 | @TeriatTheSpec

tpecoskie@thespec.com

905-526-3368 | @TeriatTheSpec

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