Royal Perth Golf Club appoints CDP and Harley Kruse to renovate course.

 

The Royal Perth Golf Club in Western Australia has made an unusual double design appointment, selecting the international company of Clayton, DeVries and Pont to author a course enhancement Masterplan alongside local Australian Golf architect Harley Kruse.

 

Kruse has expertise in landscape architecture and had previously teamed with CDP partner, and shaper, Mike DeVries on submissions to consult at various golf clubs in Victoria and NSW. Those submissions were unsuccessful, and following their informal partnership DeVries established the CDP business with Australian Mike Clayton and Dutchman Frank Pont.

 

According to Golf Course Architecture magazine, the two design businesses have been employed to create a long-term Masterplan that can direct future renovation and redesign works.

 

Royal Perth is a charming club and fascinating golf course with all 18-holes occupying less than 90 acres of land. Previous design consultant was club member and professional golfer Terry Gale, who managed to keep the tight course playing over 6,000 metres and to a par of 72. It will be interesting to see how the score card changes post works, as both Clayton and Kruse have pointed out the benefits of shorter and smaller, rather than bigger, golf.

 

In announcing the appointment of CDP and Harley Kruse as golf consultants to Royal Perth, the designers made the following comments.

 

Mike Clayton: "I first played Royal Perth in the 1979 Australian Amateur. Ever since then, I have marvelled at how so much good golf could be squeezed into around 80 acres and wondered how the course could be made even better. This is unquestionably one of the most interesting design mandates in Australia."

 

“My colleague Lukas Michel grew up in Perth and knows the course and its recent history extremely well. As one of Australia’s leading amateurs, his input will be invaluable, especially with regard to how the best players manage their way around the course. My partner Mike DeVries will also be involved, particularly when renovation works commence."

 

“I have known Harley Kruse for many years. When it comes to course design, we share many of the same mantras and beliefs. The skillsets of our two teams are highly complementary. All of us at CDP greatly look forward to working with Kruse Golf on this assignment.”

 

Harley Kruse: “The design collaboration of our two firms will bring an amazing depth of experience and knowledge to the process at Royal Perth. It is an exciting prospect, and we look forward to working with this historic club for improving the golf on its sand-based golfing land. It is tight by modern standards so every centimetre will count as we plan and work from boundary to boundary. Royal Perth can be a great example of how well-designed golf does not necessarily need to be bigger to be better.”