A trio of greens at Commonwealth. All new greens and bunker complexes on the seventh within the foreground with the tenth high left and twelfth high proper.
HAVING ‘fine-tuned’ a hook and a block nicely earlier than he arrived at Commonwealth Golf Membership as GM three years in the past, Peter Paccagnan light-heartedly says the newly renovated course fits him to a tee.
Because it does everybody who performs the brand new format, that includes signature widening of fairways and a course restored by Tom Doak’s firm Renaissance Golf Design (RGD).
Brian Slawnik and Tom Doak of RGD say they’ve at all times cherished the Melbourne sandbelt programs, together with Commonwealth.
And GM Paccagnan believes the revamp the corporate has achieved alongside the membership’s greens employees has breathed new life into the honored course and clubhouse.
That considerably annoying ti-tree is gone and the fairways have been widened.
“However the course remains to be a real take a look at, particularly off the again tees, as the sector for the Australian Novice title discovered earlier this yr,” Peter says.
“Whereas the fairways might have been opened up, the brand new greens are perilous and demand a superb strategy shot in from the appropriate place on the golf green.”
Paccagnan says the response to the revamped format has been nothing in need of unbelievable.
Commonwealth GM Peter Paccagnan.
“It was no secret for a very long time that our course was maybe inferior to it might be. However since we’ve accomplished the overhaul, we’ve gone from folks just about having the ability to get straight into the membership, to having a ready record which is blowing out to 4 or 5 years. The response has been unbelievable actually,” he says.
That is due in no small half to the membership nonetheless setting apart each Monday as a company day.
This goes in opposition to a slight development amongst sandbelt golf equipment to stop company days virtually totally or a minimum of to scale them again.
“However so far as we’re involved it fits our membership and industrial mannequin,” the GM says.
“We predict in no small means lately have helped our membership and participant numbers. Having skilled the golf and hospitality package deal, many individuals have preferred it and joined Commonwealth.”
The membership on the membership, the place he has been a member for 20 years, is at all times “up and about” and was a part of the explanation Peter threw his hat within the ring for the GM’s job.
“The members are proper into their golf however in a genial and convivial means. And there’s at all times a superb vibe amongst them within the clubhouse.”
A part of this he insists is as a result of unbelievable important clubhouse bar, “which may be among the finest, if not the most effective, within the nation.”
Peter says he at all times harboured a need to work in golf having achieved work expertise at Waverley Golf membership and going again there for 18 months across the age of 20.
“It was there that I began taking part in golf and fell love with the group ambiance at Waverley.”
The Commonwealth golf course and clubhouse.
Nonetheless, his profession took him down a unique path in hospitality and he rose to very senior positions with three well-known, massive hospitality teams earlier than being lured again to golf.
He spent a greater than eight years at Cranbourne and Metropolitan earlier than winding his means, in a profession sense, again to Commonwealth.
“I at all times needed to return to golf. It simply took me some time,” he stated.
“Luckily, I had an opportunity to work on a giant course challenge at Metropolitan which helped for what was to come back at Commonwealth after I received right here.”
He admits he was well-schooled when it got here to the hospitality experience wanted to be basic supervisor however actually “missing data in agronomy” when it got here to the massive remodelling challenge readily available at Commonwealth.
“I used to be fortunate simply to be a part of the Undertaking Staff which had all of the experience readily available and labored seamlessly collectively to get the good end result we have now.
“I couldn’t be happier to be right here and hopefully I can keep in golf for a few years. I adore it.” Peter says enthusiastically.
WHOOPS! Shane Greenhill has been the course tremendous at Sorrento for 25 years. His first identify was incorrect in our print version in Could.
