And while the new facilities will give players of all ages the chance to hone their skills, supported by some of the latest training technology the sport has to offer, it is the course itself where that work will eventually be put into practice.
The hard landscaping is now complete on Guernsey’s west coast and, once fully bedded in, it is due to be playable from next August.
‘It’s not the longest course, but it’s certainly one of the most interesting. From 150 yards out, you’ve got to play the game properly,’ said La Grande Mare owner Steve Lansdown.
‘If you’ve played La Grande Mare before, you won’t recognise this course even though it’s in the same sort of area.
‘It was just amazing walking round with the course designer, how he saw things, and how he thought things needed to be played.
‘So we’ve got a lot of bunkers, we’ve got a lot of lakes, we’ve got some fabulous fairway to play off if you get on it, and some super greens to putt.’
Course manager Rick Hamilton is the man charged with creating those world-class playing conditions.
With an impressive international CV as a golf course manager, he has returned to his home island to lead this major project.
‘Basically, La Grande Mare now is a whole new development,’ he said.
‘We’ve gone through and had to rebuild it all. We acquired new land to make the course longer and to create a new feel for the new layout.’
‘A big part of the project has been the civil works, because obviously being a marshland and all the flooding, we really wanted to get involved with doing a lot of drainage to help the course recover.
‘The mark of a good golf course is after you’ve had environmental issues with rain or whatever, is how quickly can you be open and playable?
‘We’ve got flood management systems where we can open sluice gates to move water around, and then we built a lot of new features with new ponds.
‘That’s also to help to store water in droughts in the summer because we have to be self-contained. We can’t buy any water in, so we’ve got to be able to be sustainable. That’s been a big part of it.
‘Everything we’ve done has been very focused around the ecology and the wildlife as well.’
That work, including putting in kilometres of drains, is the foundation for what will be a drastically different sporting proposition above ground.
‘The old golf course was really flat. So we put a lot of mounding and undulations to create more drama and make it a different golfing experience.
‘People will really enjoy when we put the pins in different positions. They’ve got these big long putts and movement as well to make it more fun.’
Now with three par fives and six par threes – compared with the nine shorter holes previously – the course is set to be a par 69 or 70 overall, depending on which tees are used.
‘When you’re watching the Ryder Cup or top tournament golf on the television and you look at those greens, it’s similar to what you’re going to see here,’ said Mr Lansdown.
‘It will be a real test.’
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