Like many existing golf clubs, Abergele Golf Club on the North Wales coast found that increasing numbers playing golf, particularly in the wetter winter months, had given increasing problems with the putting surfaces. Like many other older clubs, they had reluctantly turned to winter greens during these conditions, often cut on adjacent areas of fairway, and looked on with envy at more modern courses which provide excellent putting surfaces throughout the year and throughout all weather conditions.

What many such older clubs do not realise is that often the underlying cause of the wet greens in winter is the result of deliberate design decisions made at the time of construction of the course. In the early parts of this century, and even until perhaps 30 or 40 years ago, golf was mainly played in the summer months, with a very small percentage of play in the winter. Irrigation as we know it was not generally available, and therefore the main problem facing designers and constructors was ensuring that the greens remained playable during the drier summer months. To achieve this, greens were often constructed with an underlying base of heavy clay designed to retain the water in these dry periods.

The result is that, in the present day, these greens become unplayable in winter time resulting in the need for temporary greens. Hollow tining, coring and the addition of much extra drainage can slightly improve the situation, but often the underlying flaws in the initial construction remain unsurmountable. In these instances, often complete re-building is the only guaranteed cure, and can be undertaken either on a piecemeal basis with perhaps a couple of greens being built each year or, more dramatically, re-building the greens in one or two operations.

It was this second alternative that was chosen by Abergele Golf Club when they decided to re-build all the greens on their 18 hole course to modern USGA specification. Although many were only constructed just in excess of 30 years ago, the greens became rapidly unplayable as the greens became rapidly unplayable as rainfall increased in the autumn. Often temporary greens had to be brought in from the end of September until drier conditions returned, often as late as late April.

The course is a fine layout and very popular both with its Members and the many thousands of visitors it gets. It is known as an excellent test of golf, but unfortunately only in the summer months.

DWGD were commissioned to re-design all 18 greens which were re-built in two phases by leading contractors, John Greasley Limited. Nine greens were re-built in autumn 2001 and opened for play early the following summer. Members and visitors were immediately impressed by the quality of the re-designed and reconstructed greens, which also included re-design work to all the greenside bunkers. The remaining nine greens were re-built in autumn 2002 and opened for play in summer 2003.

As David Williams explains ..Not only did we re-build the greens to improve their drainage characteristics, we also took the opportunity to add shaping and more contours to the putting surfaces themselves, which not only gave the opportunity to create tough pin positions but also, in many instances, greatly improved the strategy of the hole, with many greens now having areas for tough pin positions as well as safer options for the lesser golfer.

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