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The Repair & Maintenance of Pennant Hills Golf Club see improvement to all greens and selected tees and fairways.

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The Repairs &amp; Maintenance project to renew our tees and greens has been a long and difficult journey. The work up to 1937 is well chronicled and the complexity began in 1946 when part of the course was earmarked for possible resumption to accommodate increased traffic. Then in 1965 the Club received notice from the authorities that our frontages to Mahers Road and Pennant Hills Road would be resumed. For the next 30 odd years, certainly to 1996, successive Boards operated in ambiguity where course development options were formed in response to potential resumption of land and where substantial work on tees and greens was generally deferred due to uncertainty of the outcome. Three course redesigns were completed in 1990, the first by President Paul Hendricks, another provided by Kel Nagle Cooper and a third commissioned by Tom Woolbank of Australian Golf Management. The difficulty of the challenge before Paul as President and shared with other Directors during his nine-year tenure was facing this ever-present threat while desperately seeking solutions should not be underestimated. His subsequent election to Life Membership was well earned. By the AGM in 1996 the Board was able to report that changes were relatively minor and that the redesign of the 5th hole had been completed and construction about to begin. The result is that we are currently playing golf on what is known as “Course # 5”, completed in 1935 and renewed immediately after the war in 1949 under a committee led by Harry Small then modified in 1996 to accommodate resumption of land on the Southern and Western edges of the course. At this time the problems were listed as scarcity of water, drainage and the aging conditions of our greens, matters that occupied the mind of Richard Kirkby from his appointment in 1994 until his departure some 28 years later. Subsequent Boards have commissioned redesigns; Jim Wilcher (Golf by Design) completed a Master Plan late in 2011 that was amended and discussed by Boards in the ensuing years. No action was taken, probably due to the radical nature of the plan. Some variations of the plan were put forward but nothing much seems to have been discussed past 2014. The estimated cost of the Wilcher plan was said to be in the region of $7 million, today it would be $10 or $11 million. Not surprisingly, attention turned to extension and refurbishment of the clubhouse ultimately costing $7.3 million. Work on the greens was deferred. The twin constraints of limited land and our inability to remove trees have prevented extensive action. What has been done has been largely about water, shade, tees, greens and bunkers, where greens and bunkers were the primary focus of course rejuvenation. The Club is now at a point where we can no longer defer work on our greens without facing the unwelcome prospect of playing on substandard greens and from bunkers that are unable to withstand weather events. The inevitable result is the need to close the course in times of storms and heavy rainfall. We are the last of the PACK clubs to undertake the necessary work of green restoration and course rejuvenation. The engagement of Phil Jacobs (The Player Group) as our architect and the process along with plans relating to the renewal of our greens and tees has been well documented with Members approving &quot;Project Repair and Maintenance&quot; at a recent General Meeting. Works are set to commence in January 2025 with pre-work taking place in the months prior. Donations to assist works program are being requested.

Project Repair & Maintenance