The Pembroke, N.H., board approved the plan to move 5.1 acres of land from the parcel next door, which club owner Bob MacCormack also owns, onto the golf course parcel to extend the hole’s length. MacCormack said the update is “crucial to the future of Pembroke Pines.”
The final hole at Pembroke Pines Country Club in Pembroke, N.H., may soon be getting a face-lift, the Concord (N.H.) Monitor reported.
Club owner Bob MacCormack received three approvals from Pembroke’s planning board Tuesday, paving the way for the first reconfiguration of the golf course since the back nine was added in the 1980s, the Monitor reported.
MacCormack, who bought the course in 2012 and also owns Canterbury Woods Country Club, said he brought in a consultant golf course designer to review the course, the Monitor reported.
Originally built in the 1960s, it was in need of updates that are “crucial to the future of Pembroke Pines,” MacCormack said. “I’d say right now it’s still a great course, but it’s dated.”
The most glaring deficiency, he said, was the 18th and final hole. The updated design will play a longer distance to reflect the longer drives that modern golfers with advanced equipment can achieve, the Monitor reported.
The 10th hole will be reconfigured into a dogleg left, MacCormack said, to make room for the new 18th-hole design. Some cart paths will also change, the Monitor reported.
The planning board approved a lot-line adjustment that will move 5.1 acres of land from the parcel that MacCormack owns next door onto the golf course parcel. The board also gave special consideration to the site plan, given its location in the Aquifer Conservation District, and asked questions about the chemicals and fertilizers used to treat the grass. An engineer for the project said runoff hazards were studied in planning for the proposal and infiltration basins will be used to prevent any problems, the Monitor reported.
“These two holes that we’re proposing are probably the two farthest holes from the Soucook River and the Merrimack River on the back nine,” MacCormack said.
The board unanimously approved MacCormack’s applications, the Monitor reported.
Laurie Watts, an abutter, said she was thankful that MacCormack reached out to all the abutters in the neighborhood and walked the course with her, the Monitor reported.
MacCormack went before the zoning board two months ago with a plan to develop the property next door, which he bought in January and will be left with about 89 acres after the lot-line adjustment. The proposal to add 186 housing units in eight apartment buildings was met with hostility by many people in town, the Monitor reported.
In an interview, MacCormack said he’s taken the public input into account and is thinking of coming back with a different proposal for single-family or duplex designs. But any new application is still “months away,” he said.
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