Riversdale Golf Club

Crafter + Mogford were engaged in 2007 to prepare ‘20 Year Course Master Plan’ to coincide with the Club’s Centenary in 2027. The Club’s objectives were simple; make continuous improvement to attract and retain members over the long-term, ensure the unique aspects (such as trees and shrubs) and characteristics and beauty f the course are maintained, improve their ability to attract and keep younger golfers, challenge top golfers, have a course that all members can enjoy and that is member friendly, improve and increase size of the practice facilities and provide the Board with a plan that is easy for future boards to follow. Since that time steady progress has been made with implementing course and landscape improvements to achieve these objectives. Starting in 2010 with remodelling of the 9th tees and drive bunkers. 2012 say the redevelopment of the practice putting green and 2nd greenside bunkers. A major redevelopment of the bowls area in 2015 saw their removal and replacement with a multi-tiered short-game practice facility – which combined the bowls and existing chipping green area into one very large precinct. Consistent with Club’s valuing of the picturesque combination of native and European treescape – we undertook a comprehensive process of evaluating all landscape areas and produced in 2016 the Club’s ‘Landscape Enhancement Plan’. One significant area of landscape renewal occurred in 2016 with the landscaping of the area between the 14th green and 15th tees. Continuing their commitment to the landscape of the property, 2018 saw a major redesign by our company of the front entry and interface with Huntingdale Road.

Other course works include the remodelling of the 15th green site and 18th greenside bunker. However, in more recent years the Club have become increasingly aware and engaged in the Club’s Alex Russell legacy, partaking in the Russell Society events held in 2016 at Paraparaumu Beach Club and Yarra Yarra Golf Club in 2018 and the MacKenzie Russell gathering at Royal Melbourne Golf Club in 2016. When the club purchased the St. John’s Wood Estate it commissioned Jock Young, the club’s professional, to lay out the course, with advice from Alex Russell on the bunkering. While the new course opened in 1927, it soon necessitated replanning due to a new rail-line which was to run through the property. Russell alone was responsible for replanning the course which again opened in 1930 to much acclaim. There have been changes to the course over the ensuing years, but the original design maintained where possible – particularly the layout of holes. So it is, perhaps, the dawning of a new age that sees Crafter + Mogford begin to guide the Club in recovering their Alex Russell heritage. As such, recent works have seen the redevelopment of the 3rd green complex – which has been remodelled using ca. 1936 aerial photography and aerial obliques to largely reinstate Russell’s bunker patterning while incorporating Russell’s design philosophies around the green.