Amateur Championship to showcase European Golf Design upgrade of Prince’s Golf Club

(Sunningdale, UK – June 12, 2013) Prince’s Golf Club will host the Amateur Championship next week, following a major renovation of the golf course by European Golf Design.

The Championship, which will be played over the historic links, represents an important landmark in the renaissance of one of Kent’s finest courses. Prince’s famously staged the 1932 Open Championship, won by Gene Sarazen, but the original course layout was subsequently destroyed during the Second World War and completely redesigned in 1950 by Guy Campbell and John Morrison to create the current 27 hole layout.

Prince’s Golf Club has recently redeveloped their facilities. As part of this project European Golf Design was commissioned in 2010 to oversee a number of improvements ahead of the course hosting both the Final Open Championship Qualifying in 2011 and the 2013 Amateur Championship, which the club is co-hosting with Royal Cinque Ports.

European Golf Design’s role was to carry out a strategic review of all 27 holes and oversee a total bunker restoration programme. A number of new tee complexes have been constructed and two fairways relocated to restore the original design intent and improve strategy.

Gary Johnston, lead designer on the project for European Golf Design, said; “Our role wasn’t about toughening the golf courses, it was more about reviewing the strategy of the holes to take account of the advances in technology. In all we relocated about 22 bunkers and built a further 19, whilst also removing a number of other bunkers which were redundant. The biggest change came at the 6th hole on the Himalayas where we have moved the fairway 30 yards to the left to improve the alignment of the golf hole and bring a new wetland into play.”

“It has been a long term project which was broken into phases and mostly carried out over the last three winters, which is actually the best time to build revetted bunkers. It has been hugely rewarding to work on the restoration of such a historic course and I am looking forward to seeing how it is tackled by the world’s best amateur golfers.”

The Amateur Championship is taking place between the 17th and 22nd of June. The 288 player field play one round each at Prince’s and Royal Cinque Ports, after which the 64 players with the lowest scores go forward to compete in the match play stage of the competition.