Course to be in top nick for 2021
STEVE LANSDOWN has made no promises as to what extent the golf course at Le Grande Mare will have altered by the time the club co-hosts the Island Games golf championship in 30 months' time.
But he wants to make sure it is better than ever.
‘As one of the sponsors of the Games, we will want to make sure we are planning to put the best show on we can,’ he said yesterday.
The new La Grande Mare course owner has vowed to make the short, 18-hole course into a world-class course and resort, the likes of which will excite not only the current LGM membership but all island golfers.
The process started more than a year ago with the appointments of John Dent and Richard Hamilton, but Lansdown said that their recruitments from Turkey and China respectively as director of golf and consultant agronomist, were not part of any long-term plan of which he was a part.
‘They have certainly come in and made a difference and we certainly want to continue that.
‘You talk to the members now and they will say the greens are much better than they have ever been, as it the condition of the course.
‘John is away this week, but next week we will sit down and brainstorm what we feel can happen with the course and how we can improve it.
'It’s a lovely golf course but we want to make it better and attract more people to come and play there.’
Making it longer is an aim, he says.
‘I’d like to, but it’s a question of the area we have got to work with. We will look at what we have got and if there is a need to acquire more land to extend the course further, we will have to do that as well.’
But world class?
‘I think the thing is what we have there is a good hotel, a good complex, a good golf course. But is it good enough, like the Tetley Beer advert [says] ‘It’s good, but not that good to attract people to want to come on golfing holidays here. Is it good enough to attract business to come and stay there and want to play golf and so on?
‘The early exercise will be to improve all aspects of the complex.
‘Guernsey doesn’t have that [world-class] golf facility and what brought it home to me this week when I was walking around the course was how fantastic the outlook there is on the countryside looking inland and a fantastic view over the beach and the coast.
'The location is perfect and now it’s a case of making the most of that location. It needs investment in it but we need to make sure we make the right investment.
‘Some of the ideas I have floating around my head will happen, some won’t.’
The new owner is also keen to set up a ‘top-class’ academy. He does not deny that top European professional Robert Rock, who was on island in December, is lined up possibly to head up that academy.
'It would make it more of a top-class destination. It will add kudos to the place and the team there.’
