With the Australian PGA Championship beginning on the Gold Coast on 11 December  there is much anticipation on just how the significant changes to the front nine at RACV Royal Pines Resort are coming along and the state of readiness the full 18 holes will be in when the event gets underway.

With nine of the 18 holes of the tournament course completed as the planned stage one of the major redevelopment, it is not only a case of the readiness of the front nine for the task ahead but their similarity in presentation to the existing back nine.

The man responsible for the preparation of the golf course since the handover by the construction company, Ertech, and the completion of grassing in August, is RACV Royal Pines’ Golf Course Superintendent, Lincoln Coombes, and he knows better than anyone the task at hand and just where things stand in the layout’s presentation.

In addition to having the new nine at its very best for one of the PGA Tour of Australasia’s flagship events, Coombes must also ensure the existing nine holes, which are to be reconstructed in stage two next year, marry as closely as possible to the new nine or vice versa as the consistency over all 18 holes is crucial in the presentation of any tournament course.

While the routing of the golf course remains the same, the comparisons between the two nines in terms of aesthetics and strategy are very different, but providing their playability in terms of green speed, firmness and other such influences are as close as possible, then Coombes and his team will have done their job.

This is very much the transition year for what is a major multi-million dollar commitment by RACV to upgrading a facility first constructed in 1990.

This year’s event and the RACV Ladies Masters in February will be the only occasions where such a task will face the maintenance team.

By this time next year, when the redevelopment of the second nine of Royal Pines’ tournament course is completed, there will be uniformity across all 18 holes in every respect. 

Coombes is confident, however, that things are on track for a successful marriage between the nines and one that will satisfy all parties.

When the likes of Adam Scott and a very strong local field arrive at RACV Royal Pines Resort in the second week of December they will be greeted by a golf course in readiness for what lies ahead.

"The golf course will come into its own in the next couple of years once all 18 are completed but we are confident of providing a tournament course this year where the two nines are very close in terms of playability," Coombes said this week

While the reconstruction was blessed with perfect conditions through the earthworks and shaping phases, with little rain to disrupt progress, once grassing had been completed in mid August the hoped for rains have never really eventuated and Coombes has been forced to rely on constant irrigation to assist in establishing the introduced grasses, all of which had been solid turfed.

"We have been able to manage with the irrigation but of course a good solid rain in the next three weeks would certainly assist," added Coombes.

"There was a huge storm and flash flooding in Brisbane the other day although we got virtually nothing."

"Rain over the next couple of weeks would be great. Either way the grass is doing well and we are on track but a bit of assistance from Mother Nature would help." 

The Tifeagle Bermuda grass on the new greens is one of the newer strains of Bermuda and in the long run will offer Royal Pines a far better surface for tournament play.

The finer leaf provides the opportunity to have the greens running at fasters speeds but there is a difference between the existing 328 Bermuda and the new grass.

Coombes’ task in this first year is to ensure there is little perceivable difference in how the respective surfaces play.

"We have recently purchased the latest moisture sensor and firmness metre allowing us to closely monitor any differences between the respective surfaces."

"That provides the necessary information for us to take the appropriate action."

"We have procedures we can undertake to ensure the firmness of the greens is comparable and then managing the speed is something we can control in the cutting."    

The fairways are coming along very well, the Wintergreen on the newly laid fairways is actually a derivative of the Windsor grass on the old nine but the new grass is expected to provide an improved playing surface for shots from the fairway.

"The roughs we will have at 3 inches and on the new nine the roughs are already a consistent length and the recent deliberate reduction of cart traffic on the old nine is allowing for those roughs to develop nicely also."

The project to redevelop what promises to become a long term home for the Australian PGA Championship and RACV Ladies Masters was one that was forced to run within very tight timelines.

The works at RACV Royal Pines have effectively been on schedule since they first began in late February and now the finishing touches are expected to have the tournament course, in its revised form, in pristine condition for its debut.