Hawkestone, the small country golf club outside Marton, is getting smaller ...
Not in terms of players - membership has seen a boost in recent months and now stands at a healthy 159 - but the course, which has 16 holes, is being reduced to 13.
In 2004, the club sold some
land to mining enterprise Rangitikei Aggregates, which was extracting metal from nearby Rangitikei River. The club continued to play on the land but has been advised the mining company aims to start working the area next year, and that rekindled long-held plans to reconfigure the course.
Five designs were put to members for a vote and now progress is being made on Hawkestone mark 2.
Club captain Gary Southee says it is an exciting prospect.
"We've been waiting for seven years to re-develop the course and now we are getting on with it," he said. "It will be a much more challenging course and we hope to incorporate water features."
Land not previously used for golf will become part of the new course - including a paddock leased to a maize grower and an area of trees has been chopped down and sold in readiness for a new fairway.
Mr Southee said it would be a staged development but, if all went well, the new-look course should be completed in three years.
Vice-captain Grant Forbes described Hawkestone as an easy-going, close-knit club, but with a competitive edge, having gone to the brink of promotion to the Manawatu-Wanganui Association's A grade in the past two years and doing well in trophy competitions.
