Jonathan has been a playing member at Cavendish Golf Club since 2010.
Since 2011 he has been on the Greens Committee and has been advising the club on course improvements, including drainage works, bunker remodelling and tee reconstruction. A course masterplan was prepared in 2016 with a view to continuing these improvements, aiming for completion in 2025, the year of the Club’s centenary. The construction and remodelling work is mostly done in-house by the greenkeeping staff and volunteers.
The course was originally designed in 1925 by Alister MacKenzie, employed by the Duke of Devonshire. Although considered short by modern standards, the course features some dramatically contoured greens and well-placed strategic bunkering. Many natural features have been brought into play in the clever design, including deep ravines and valleys, fast flowing streams and wide, undulating fairway landing areas.
This golf course has stood the test of time, still providing a strong challenge for golfers of all levels. It is a fore-runner, in MacKenzie’s portfolio, to his design of the Augusta National Golf Course, the home of the Masters. To read more about this, see Jonathan’s article, as published in Today’s Golfer April 2016.
The only significant reconstruction work undertaken at Cavendish before these later course improvements was done by Jonathan’s previous company, involving the redesign and reconstruction of the 9th green.
Photo credit: Bob Atkins/Today’s Golfer/Buxton Museum