A quarter of a billion pounds of upgrading will have been completed by the time the Gleneagles Hotel hosts the Ryder Cup in 2014, but the plan is to have the PGA Centenary Course match-ready by the beginning of next year.
Investment of £20m has already been made in the resort since the announcement in 2001 that it would host the matches between Europe and the USA, with the latest project being the overhaul of the Dormie House, likely to be the base for both teams in 2014.
Meanwhile alterations to some holes on the host course have been made in the last few months while more are in the pipeline with the original designer, 18-time major champion Jack Nicklaus, back on board to oversee and approve the partial redevelopment of the 7316-yard home of the annual Johnnie Walker Championship on the European Tour.
General manager Bernard Murphy said that the total cost of upgrades at the hotel since 2001 was “not far away” from £25m.
“That’s over the whole resort and not all of that is specifically for the Ryder Cup and for the golf, but it all has an impact,” he said.
Gleneagles director of golf Russell Smith outlined that the hotel felt the need to upgrade golf facilities in keeping with improvements to the hotel and to rival resorts, hence the £2.5m plus refurbishment of the Dormie House.
“There has been a lot of investment in the hotel and we felt the Dormie should have a feeling of that, and it needed freshening up when you look at facilities at other golf resorts in Scotland,” he said.
“Having it ready for the Ryder Cup was a big goal but simply for our operational golf business, we wanted to raise the bar higher.
“The team rooms for the Ryder Cup are likely to be there and everything’s been upgraded public areas, locker rooms, restaurants and the golf shop.
“There’s a much bigger function space, a more impressive arrival space, and we’re looking to have it open again for April 18.”
As for the course, the controversial seventh green one of those altered in a previous revamp to less-than-enthusiastic reviews from top professionals had already been changed again.Impact”It has already been done twice and this is the third attempt, but we’d like to think we’ve made a big impact there this time,” he continued.
“We’ve significantly flattened the green and the problem of shots to the right bouncing too far left will be ended.
“Mr Nicklaus is happy with the change, which we were doing before he came back on board.
“He actually quite liked what (previous designer) David McLay Kydd had done with the shape of the hole.
“The negative thing was just the green, and the European Tour have been on site and given it their blessing.”
As regards further changes, some minor alterations are planned and some more major, but the plan is to have the course in the shape it will be for 2014 by next spring.
Smith added, “Mr Nicklaus has made quite a few suggestions so far, and there may be changes in routing and improvements not just for the Ryder Cup, but for all the tournaments.
“The 18th hole hasn’t been confirmed, but something will be changed there.
“We’ve had proposals about bunkering, reducing it to a par four, and there have been discussions about re-routing, making the first or second the 18th hole, but as it stands it’ll stay the way it is unless something changes over the next 18 months.
Gleneagles are confident that they have enough space to accommodate crowds and infrastructure around the course, and plan use of luxury temporary structures as well as the resort’s existing facilities.
Key for the hosts is that an earlier date in the schedule is found rather than going into mid-October, agreed general manager Murphy.
“We’d welcome that as much from a daylight perspective as anything and an earlier date is the assumption,” he said.
“Perhaps the experience at Celtic Manor was that it wasn’t just the Europeans who wanted it earlier the Americans clearly didn’t enjoy those conditions and they would prefer it, too.
“There’s been no suggestion of a change to the structure of the agreement with the tour at this time which might take the event to four days as yet, although we are open to suggestions.”