The Leicestershire Golf Course
Steve Ritson has been providing golf course design advice to the prestigious Leicestershire Golf Course since 2005 and is still overseeing ongoing improvements to bunkering, ponds and tree planting. The work is presently being carried out by the green staff team who soon got the hang of shaping up the bunkers with Steve designing, setting out the bunkers and then advising on the shaping as the work progresses.
Please visit the Leicestershire Golf Course website.
Ullesthorpe Golf Course
Steve has been appointed to redesign several golf holes and design a new golf driving range at Ullesthorpe Golf Club in Leicestershire as part of a long-term programme to upgrade the golf course and practice facilities.
The redesign includes the 1st and 2nd holes, where some land will be lost from the existing course to housing and on the 15th hole extending this from a short par 4 to a par 5 with a new green played over a pond.
For more information, please visit the Ullesthorpe Court Golf Course website.
Shirley Golf Course
Here Steve had the great honour of working together with the Ladies Solheim Team Captain Alison Nicholas and David Bates Agronomy to review the existing 18 hole golf course and prepare design proposals for the renovation and long term improvements on the course.
The improvements included the introduction of several new ponds to collect water from natural spring points and to be used in future irrigation, new and remodelled bunkers and removal of some trees to open up views through the course as shown in the pictures opposite.
Please visit the Shirley Golf Club website.
Woldingham Golf Course
Steve redesigned the 10th hole at The Woldingham Golf Course in Surrey in 2005-7 for Ron Noades the former club owner. The 10th fairway had a severe cross falll over most of the fairway which meant that it was very difficult to hold the ball in play from the drive.
The remodelling work involved reshaping the fairway by regrading the embankment at the edge of the golf course over a large area, to make it easier to land the drive and set up a great approach to the green below. The work was carried out by MJ Abbotts to an excellent standard.
For more information, please visit Woldingham Golf Course website.
The Craythorne Golf Course
Steve was commissioned by Tony Wright the owner of this 18 hole course near Burton-Upon-Trent in 2001 to redesign 3 holes on some additonal land in order to lengthen and improve the course.
The work was undertaken by Talbot Landscapes Ltd and the remodelling work was complete within 6 months with the new holes opening the following year.
Sadly the course closed when the owner retired in 2013 but you can see from the photos that the holes we remodelled turned out very well indeed.
Whiston Hall Golf Course
This 18 hole golf course was constructed in the 1970s but not professionally designed and has a number of crossover holes, blind par 3 holes and areas which are very poorly drained.
Steve has redesigned the golf course to untangle the cross over holes, create a superb selection of par 3 holes, design a series of attenuation ponds which will hold any heavy rains within the golf course and not flood nearby areas and then raised the land in order to drain well, where it was previously waterlogged, allowing all year round play.
The redesigned course will be safer to play, create a large number of new habitats of reedbeds and ponds to improve biodiversity and allow the course to stay open all year round. Check out progress at Whiston Hall Golf Course Website.
Golf Des Ocres Provence France
Started in January 2024, this is a former par 3 course in the south of France, which was in disrepair and Steve is now redesigning the course for the new owners to reopen in June 2024 as an executive course in the first phase and then to extend the golf course as adjacent land becomes available.
The course will have a newly designed state-of-the-art Trackman driving range with teaching bays and a new short game academy chipping and putting facility.
A new footpath leading from the local village will allow the course to be intergraded into the community and the course shall be planted with local fruit and flowers such as lavender to be farmed openly with the nearby village, helping to give this landscape a sense of place within the beautiful rural countryside of Provence.
Many of the previous holes including an island green were remodelled/refurbished and additional bunkering, hollows, mounds and a series of lakes will run through the course which is designed in a sustainable way using minimum earthmoving, retaining existing trees and planting native and local fruiting trees and flowers.
For the latest news go to the Domain De Hautes Garrigues Golf Course Website.