The course was designed by Harry Colt 100 years ago, and during World War II a bunker was built for the British government if it had to flee London.
The Wentworth Club in Surrey, England, circa 1940.Credit...AlamyFew cathedrals of recreation trade as a great deal as golf guides. They are subjected now not only to nature however also to possession and the designers they lease to alternate the route. There is a century of history within the Wentworth Club’s West Course, which opened in Surrey, England, in 1922. This week it'll be home to the BMW PGA Championship, however now not all the direction originally shaped via Harry S. Colt, one among golf architecture’s most respected names, remains. Since 2005, the course has passed through several redesigns via Ernie Els Design. “It may be argued that Colt is the exceptional and maximum influential architect of all time,” stated Andy Johnson of the Fried Egg, a golf structure website. Yet some golfers said Wentworth changed into not one in all Colt’s gemstones. Colt’s roster consists of the New Course on the Sunningdale Golf Club in England, Swinley Forest Golf Club in England and the Eden Course at St. Andrews in Scotland. Colt’s skills as an architect had been in what is called the routing — or series of holes — in his courses. He changed into able to area holes over the terrain that took gain of the topography’s herbal drama, however he extensively utilized risks that “created alternate lines of play,” Johnson said. “You ought to cross over the bunkers and feature a extra direct path to the hole or you can cross round them, making it more difficult to attain as it driven out your perspective of attack.” Colt’s success as an architect become in his capability to make inland courses as thrilling because the beach links publications wherein the game became invented. The mixing of hazards into a course’s herbal environment helped create a energy and interest in such courses that, in a few methods, did no longer formerly exist. What makes Wentworth special is nostalgia. It is the web site of the European Tour’s headquarters and has hosted the Ryder Cup and turned into domestic to the World Match Play Championship Yet for all of Wentworth’s records, such as constructing a bunker for the British government if it needed to flee London at some point of World War II, as a golf route it does not rank among the international’s most coveted locations. The route underwent a primary preservation in 2009, however the end result was not famous and players savaged the modifications. Greg Letsche of Ernie Els Design said, “We in reality had a number of sleepless nights on it,” and in 2017 Els and his team have been brought in to redo their redo. ImageErnie Els on the 2019 BMW PGA Championship at the Wentworth Club. Credit...Paul Ellis/Agence France-Presse — Getty ImagesWorking alongside the European Tour, Els went returned into the direction and softened the adjustments, and Letsche stated the course now supplied a stern however honest test of golfing. “Colt changed into very good at his initial routing,” he said, “and his balance of par 3s and 4s and 5s talk to his expertise of approach.” Letsche stated that Colt tried tough to make sure a selection of distances for each of those varieties of holes and that he and Els studied antique pictures of the path to make sure that they have been capable of restore the path to its unique vision whilst also modernizing it. One of the challenges for Els and Letsche turned into to renovate a direction that would project the arena’s best players and now not be intimidating to the membership’s individuals. “You have to have the balance,” Letsche said. “You need strategic values for the professional, however then you have to have make it amusing and playable, with one of a kind angles into the inexperienced, so that the ageing baby boomer and beginners can feed the ball into the inexperienced.” In essence, Letsche said, a designer ought to build publications — one for event golfing and one for everybody else. He stated the professionals would be examined this week on a path that is meant to play as Colt meant.
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