Moray engages course architect

Moray Golf Club has asked a golf course architect to help develop plans for the future of its golf courses as it looks to ensure they remain ‘relevant and challenging’.

The club has always been associated with some of the game’s finest course designers. Its Old Course was laid out by Old Tom Morris in 1889, while the tighter New Course was fashioned by three times Open champion Henry Cotton.

Swan Golf Designs, which was borne out of the successful collaboration between consultant golf course engineer Alex Swan and Henry Cotton, has been engaged to develop the designs, 37 years after the duo created the current layout of the club’s New Course.

“Moray Golf Club has been associated with a number of legendary names in golf course architecture,” explained John Thomson, the captain of Moray Golf Club, whose dad Farquhar assisted Cotton in 1979. “When the decision was made to create a masterplan that would enhance the already great holes we have at Moray, it was important to continue that precedent.

“The benefits of this project are many fold, including developing a courses policy document, the planning of a work schedule and the forward planning of budgets for the next few years. That is the basis on which we set out on this journey and with the invaluable input of Swan Golf Designs, we intend to complete it with carefully considered improvements that will enhance rather than alter the courses at Moray.”

Howard Swan, son of Alex, is now running the business with his son William, and he is delighted to be going back to the club where his father left such a lasting impression.

“It is great to be going back and to continue the family tradition,” he said. “I had the good fortune of working with my dad for 20 years before he died in 1984, so it was always nice to go back to a club where he has worked. It is quite emotional to think that the old boy was here before me.

“As a golf destination, Moray Golf Club is immensely important. It is traditional links land and a golf club of some calibre.”

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