The views are spectacular, taking in a lovely Cornish river, a ruined castle and the rooftops of an ancient town while the golf is pleasantly challenging, with tight fairways and undulating greens.
But what makes Gillyflower golf course in Lostwithiel different is that every square metre of non-playing surface will be used to grow fruit and vegetables or encourage flora and fauna.
The brainchild of creators behind the Cornish eco attractions the Eden Project and The Lost Gardens of Heligan, Gillyflower is being billed as a unique “edible” and green golf course.
Each of the nine holes on the course, which is about to welcome its first players, is being planted with fruit and nut trees and vegetables. Hedges and rough areas are being maintained with wildlife in mind; greens and fairways managed in as environmentally friendly way as possible.
“Golf has a reputation for not being very green,” said Gillyflower’s director of golf, Joe Micklethwaite. “The idea here is to create a great course but making sure everything we do is going to be as good for the environment as possible.”
Micklethwaite, 29, learned to play in Cornwall before moving to California and turning professional. This winter he was back in the county overseeing the development of Gillyflower – and also planting hundreds of Cornelian cherry trees on a slope to the left of the third hole. “We all join in,” he said. “It’s been a steep learning curve.”
So now as well as helping point out the best line for a tee-shot off the first, Micklethwaite can give a history of the lines of Gillyflower apple trees planted on the hole (it is an old Cornish variety best eaten from Christmas Day).
He can also talk about the pineapple guava bushes next to the railway line and the plans for a tea plantation on the slope of the very steep second hole, and how he has grown attached to the three Tamworth pigs that are kept on site to help trim undergrowth in a more natural way.
Some golfers will get frustrated when they lose their ball in the longer-than-usual rough. But the hope is they will understand it is better for the flora and fauna and accept the penalty. “It’s all for a good cause,” Micklethwaite said.
Gillyflower has been created out of the remains of the old Lostwithiel golf and country club, which closed in 2014, to the anguish of its 300 members. It was quickly reclaimed by scrub and gorse and could have been lost forever.
But Sir Tim Smit, one of the founders of the Eden Project, and his son, Alex, who both live nearby, fell in love with the sweep of land next to the River Fowey and though neither were golfers, decided to save it.
Alex Smit, the managing director of the Gillyflower project, said eyebrows were raised. Reviving a golf course did not seem the sort of project that would grab the imagination of a green pioneer like his father.
But he said it had been exciting to find eco-friendly solutions to the maintenance challenges that have turned some courses into artificial, toxic nature deserts.
These range from an early decision not to water the greens to an exotic answer to the age-old problem of keeping badgers away from manicured surfaces – lion excreta.
They are working with local food and drink businesses to turn Gillyflower’s crops into produce. Apples will be made into cider, cherries into liqueur. The old first hole has been remodelled into a potager garden where rare varieties of bean, asparagus, shallot and rhubarb.
The Smits do not claim they are the first to try to tackle golf’s notoriously ungreen image – courses across the world are looking at ways of using fewer chemicals and pesticides – but they hope their name will encourage many others to look at their holistic approach and perhaps inspire golfers who play at Gillyflower to do something interesting with their own gardens, window boxes or allotments.
The project is not without controversy. As part of the scheme, the Smits want to create an education centre for horticulture, agronomy and cookery on part of the site.
But hundreds of residents have objected, claiming its prominent position would spoil precious views from the town. Cornwall council turned down the scheme at a fiery meeting in April, though it is expected there will be an appeal.
Alex Smit admitted the process had been “painful” to the family. He said he hoped once the course opened at the start of next month, people would be able to see their intentions were honourable and good.
Rob Porrington, the head greenkeeper and one of the builders of the original course, said it had been a huge blow to the town when the course closed. It had been a “hard slog” to get it into shape again without many of the “old school” methods. “But people can’t wait to get back now. It will be wonderful to see people playing golf here again,” said Porrington.
