What was the most challenging part of rerouting the 10th hole of the Stadium Course? Director of Agronomy David Bataller tells us in this interview
Work has now been completed to renovate the 10th hole of the Stadium Course at Camiral Resort and it’s looking amazing. We caught up with our Director of Agronomy, David Bataller, to find out what this challenging project entailed…
Hi David. Let’s start by summarising the work that has been done on the 10th hole of our much-loved Stadium Course…
The Stadium course is always an ongoing process for improvements and on this occasion, we turned our attentions to the 10th hole. We’ve made a major change to improve the hole both from a golfing experience and to give more privacy and safety to the villas and real estate.
We have gone from a straight hole which required a big drive, to a right-to-left dogleg. It makes the hole much more interesting as you now need the right length from the tee to land in the perfect position in order to go for the green with your second shot.
The green has not changed, but you’re coming into it from a different angle which brings the bunkers more into play.
Did everything go to plan?
Yes. The weather has been very nice this winter, with average temperatures for growing turf grass and very little rain which helped moving the dry earth. It has been the perfect winter both to do on-course renovations and for playing golf.
What was the most challenging aspect of the work?
Finishing everything on time. We promised to complete the works and stabilise the turf grass to be playable by 1st February and our greenkeeping’s team is very proud to have done it on time.
How has it changed the way the hole plays? Is it more challenging now?
(Head Professional) Enric tells you more about this, but I think now when you step onto the new tee box, it makes you think every time you play it, particularly as the wind is more of a factor with the dogleg.
Did you need to take any steps to protect the environment or ecology?
Yes, we have preserved the same environment. It was simply a case of moving it from one side of the fairway to the other.
Did you plant any new trees/plants or was it a case of moving existing ones?
Some of the trees have been transplanted, and in addition 20 new pine trees and corks have been planted along the left-hand side on the entire fairway.
Are there any other changes that are still taking place? (moving tee boxes, re-routing of cart path, etc)
The concrete cart path has been finished on 29th January as this has been moved more to the right to make room for the new fairway lines.
The red and blue tees is another project which will be completed before the end of March. Those will be played to the same distance, but the location will be moved to the left to give a better angle and so it doesn’t block the view of the hole from back tees. To see the new 10th hole for yourself, book a tee timeHERE.
