Plan for new Royal Aberdeen

practice facilities would cut

Silverburn course to 9 holes

A plan to make ground available for an upgrade of Royal Aberdeen Golf Club’s practice facilities by reducing the club’s secondary Silverburn course from 18 to nine holes will be voted on at an extraordinary general meeting of the members in the New Year.
In a letter to the Royal Aberdeen members, club captain David Davidson states “It is not envisaged that this development, if approved, will be in place until the Walker Cup in 2011 is over.”
Mr Davidson writes:
“It has long been acknowledged that our practice ground is well below the standards of the remainder of the club’s facilities. Council believes that for a practice facility to be viable, it should be situated close to the clubhouse for security purposes and to enable it to be used easily for warming-up and tuition.
“A new practice ground should also possess sufficient width to allow several players to use it simultaneously and sufficient length to allow full shots to be played with all the clubs in the page. The reality is that we do not have sufficient ground available to create such a facility without losing some of the holes on the Silverburn.”
Improving the Balgownie practice facilities been on the agenda of successeive Royal Aberdeen councils for the best part of two decades. Reports on the subject were commissioned from golf course design company Donald Steel & Co in 1993 and again in 2003.
This year, another company, Martin Hawtree & Son, were asked by the club to report on whether it would be possible to construct an appropriate practice facility while retaining 18 holes on the Silverburn. The conclusion of the report was that it was not possible and that if the club wanted to create a modern and useful practice ground, the most logical location would be on the site of the second, third and fourth holes on the Silverburn.
Martin Hawtree’s proposals include:
1 A practice ground 300 metres in length, running from approximately the location of the fifth tee of the Silverburn course towards the present third green on the No 2 course.
2 A four-hole practice course on the ground currently occupied by the first, fifth and sixth holes over the Silverburn.
3 The retention of the short-game practice area.
4 A longer and much improved nine-hole Silverburn course.
5 A practice green and chipping area next to the Aberdeen Ladies clubhouse.
“These proposals,” writes Mr Davidson, “would also free up land capable of increasing the available car parking spaces, which is now becoming a problem at weekends when cars are now resorting to parking on the Silverburn.
“Council recognises that this is an emotive issue which will arouse strong feelings but they consider that, standing the terms of the Hawtree report against the background of the two Steel reports, it is appropriate to bring the proposal to the membership for consideration and ultimately a decision.”
+Royal Aberdeen Golf Club, founded in 1780 as the Society of Aberdeen Golfers, is the sixth oldest golf club in the world. It has no female members but the Aberdeen Ladies Golf Club clubhouse is close to the first tee of the Silverburn course. Aberdeen Ladies’ Silver Division players pay higher subscription fees than the Bronze Division because they are permitted to play over the Balgownie links while the female players with higher handicaps are restricted to the shorter, 4021yd par-64 Silverburn course.