Doak replaces Clayton as design consultant at Royal Adelaide

The Royal Adelaide Golf Club has announced that American golf course designer Tom Doak will replace Mike Clayton as the club's consulting course architect. Clayton's previous company was responsible for the redesign of the 17th hole at Royal Adelaide, which divided opinions within the club and ultimately led to him being replaced in the role. As an interesting aside, Doak and Clayton have worked closely in the past on projects like Barnbougle Dunes and St Andrews Beach. As explained in the media release below, Doak's first task will be to redesign Clayton's contentious 17th hole.

 

Media Release

The Royal Adelaide Golf Club has secured the services of internationally renowned golf course architect Tom Doak.

Mr Doak is the author of the “Confidential Guide to Golf Courses” and is a regular contributor to course architecture magazines. He is considered one of America’s most successful golf architects, and currently has four courses ranked among the top 100 in the world according to Golf Magazine’s “Top 100 Courses in the World” list, including Pacific Dunes (Oregon,USA), Ballyneal (Colorado, USA), Barnbougle Dunes (Tasmania, Australia) and Cape Kidnappers (Napier, New Zealand).

Along with his Senior Design Associate, Brian Slawnik from Renaissance Golf Design, Mr Doak will work with club officials on the design of the course.

RAGC General Manager Andrew Gay said Mr Doak’s first priority was to address the course’s 17th hole, which had been identified as a concern during membership consultation and as part of the club’s long-term planning.

“Our members gave very clear feedback that the 17th hole is not in keeping with the rest of Royal Adelaide, and Tom comes to us with an enormous amount of experience that we believe will help better integrate the hole, and enhance what is already unique at Royal Adelaide,” Mr Gay said.

“One of his first tasks will be to make changes to the 17th hole to ensure it fits into the Royal Adelaide character and live up to the expectations of being one of our best holes.

“This fits very nicely in with our long term goals for Royal Adelaide, which is to provide a superior golfing experience that is universally recognised. It’s very exciting for the club to have someone who has such an affinity with links golf course design to work with us on sensitively improving the course.”

Mr Gay and Club’s Committee had inspected Mr Doak’s work on Royal Melbourne Golf Club’s East Course, and believed the design work he had undertaken there had not only dramatically enhanced the course but retained its character and charm.

Speaking from the USA, Mr Doak said he was looking forward to returning to Royal Adelaide, and starting work on such a historic course, which is consistently rated as one of the World’s Top 100 golf courses.

“I first visited Royal Adelaide back in 1988, and it was a spectacular course then, so to now be given the opportunity to be involved in its next phase of design, is an honour,” he said.

“The course is consistently highly rated in the industry and it is my intention that the improvements that we will see over the next few years will maintain Royal Adelaide’s status”

 

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