England’s
St. Enodoc Golf Club
EMBARKS ON ECOLOGICAL MANAGEMENT PLAN
Travel
St Enodoc GC overlooks the stunning Camel Estuary
Returning its courses to biodiverse
landscape
Dune slack creation and remodelling
of 12th tee complex - Church Course
St. Enodoc Golf Club in north
Cornwall, England has embarked
on a �ve year ecological
management plan to return both
its championship Church Course
and Holywell Course back to a biodiverse
landscape that will bene�t both nature and the
game of golf and better re�ect the terrain on
which the course was originally established
over 100 years ago.
Home to one of England’s �nest championship
golf layouts, the club has already spent the last
few years working alongside Natural England
to get rid of the scrub plant species that had
inveigled their way onto both courses over the
years and had come to dominate where there
has previously been a lack of management or
disturbance.
The removal of these species will allow fescue
and other natural grasses to make a return to
the land that will then attract the proliferation
of fauna that thrive in this habitat.
A programme of dune restoration, for
example, has been undertaken with Natural
England to reinstate the more natural links
landscape that James Braid would have come
across when he designed St Enodoc back in
1890.
“By undertaking this ecological plan, the club
is committed to ripping out the scrub plant
species such as ivy, buckthorn and gorse, and
even trees, that have encroached on the land
where are two courses are set in order to allow
it to return to its original state,” comments
Simon Greatorex, general manager of St
Enodoc.
“The purpose of the ecological management
plans is to preserve the biosphere found
through the two courses, maximising the
ecosystem services they provide and ensuring
vegetation encroachment does not degrade
the play of golf
through them. This
will preserve the
links golf course
“feel” that has
helped elevate
links courses to the
worldwide renown
they enjoy today,”
explains Rumball.
In time, the various changes to the courses’
�ora will see a return of the fauna such as
reptiles, spiders and moths associated with
links ground to the restored habitat.
The long-term objective of undertaking
these plans is for St Enodoc to become
GEO certi�ed as this comprehensive and
widely-regarded sustainability distinction is
a requirement for clubs that wish to host an
R&A tournament, something which the club
is keen to do at some point in the future.
Scrub clearance on the 15th Hole
of St Enodoc’s Church Course
St Enodoc from the air
The 6th green at St Enodoc with
the 4th hole in the background
GolfPlus JULY 2020 51