Jonathan was interviewed (and Mark Fry, Course Manager) at Whittington Heath Golf Club by Karl Hansell, Editor of Greenkeeper International, the monthly publication of the British and International Golf Greenkeepers Association in September 2019.
Whittington Heath is a Harry Colt design and Jonathan explained how the new holes were influenced by the history of the club.
“I think we’ve realised that traditional designs are probably less intensive to maintain,” he said. “When it comes to aesthetics, those old black and white photographs are romantic to look at, but there was definitely also a move in the US when people like Coore and Crenshaw started doing rough edge golf courses, moving away from the formulaic American design to a more natural, British style. That has snowballed and I’m working alongside really good architects who have been doing a similar thing, bringing back the original styling and shaping that you would have seen in the 1920s and ‘30s.