Commonwealth Golf Club appoint Crafter+Mogford as Landscape Architect
Commonwealth is delighted to announce that Paul Mogford of Crafter+Mogford has been appointed to prepare and implement the Club’s Landscape Master Plan.
The Landscape Master Plan will aim to enhance Commonwealth’s Course Restoration Programme currently in development with Tom Doak and Brian Slawnik of Renaissance Golf Design (RGD).
Crafter+Mogford have been active for many years at a range of courses predominantly in the Australian cities of Melbourne and Adelaide, including Metropolitan Golf Club, Barwon Heads Golf Club, Sorrento Golf Club and they have been appointed to undertake works at The National including the Gunnamatta course recently enhanced by RGD.
Transition project
Crafter+Mogford’s brief is to transition Commonwealth from parkland vegetation to indigenous Sandbelt vegetation over a 10-15 year period. The indigenous vegetation will be based on six local Ecological Vegetation Classifications (EVC’s). The Commonwealth landscape is unique in the Melbourne Sandbelt due to the mix of both terrestrial and aquatic EVC’s.
Leading Australian golf and landscape architect Paul Mogford is looking forward to this project with Commonwealth.
“Great golf course architecture and the landscape in which it sits are not separable. They are intimately intertwined and their mutual success is reliant on each other. We are therefore excited to work closely with RGD to elevate Commonwealth and are very much looking forward to this commission”.
The Landscape Master Plan
Commonwealth Golf Club Captain, Paul Rainey, says “the Landscape Master Plan is intended to restore the landscape to its ecological origins consistent with the Course Master Plan which RGD will shortly commence. It is envisaged by the Committee that within 10 years the course will nestle within a pallet of flora species similar to those which dominated the site before European settlement. It is expected that native fauna and birdlife will be attracted to this landscape. Apart from offering members the pleasure of playing golf in this unique environment, the Club considers there are significant historical and environmental benefits in the restoration of this pioneer landscape to which the local community will be given access from to time.”
Commonwealth has played host to a number of major golfing Championships, including the Australian Open, Women’s Australian Open and Victorian Open, as well as a number of National and State Amateur Championships.
Commonwealth has been and remains a golfing home for many of Australia’s finest golfers, with the Club’s honour boards boasting names such as Jarrod Lyle, Marc Leishman, 2019 NZ Open winner Zach Murray and 2020 Dubai Desert Classic, 2021 Irish Open and USPGA 2022 Butterfield Bermuda Championship winner Lucas Herbert.
