English golf course forced into drastic changes: ‘It’s the safest option’

We’ve all been affected by major roadworks at one time or another – but this a first.

A golf club has been forced to reconfigure its course layout after a local council approved plans to make changes to a major motorway intersection.

The proposed carriageway widening project at Simister Island, which links the M60, M62 and M66, in Greater Manchester, means the motorway will encroach into the playing area at an adjacent course.

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Pike Fold Golf Club’s board submitted planning permission to Bury Council to say that “it has now been agreed that the safest option for all concerned would be to move the greens further from the affected boundary”. The Council described the changes as lawful, adding they “are deemed not to constitute development”.

In total, seven holes – the 1st, 2nd, 6th, 10th, 15th, 17th and 18th – will be affected.

Pike Fold also revealed that the work will include the filling in several existing bunkers and building new ones, relocating tee placements, and re-routing walkways. The club also said that, following discussions with the Forestry Commission, there will be minimal tree clearance to enable these adjustments.

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It is not the first time the club has had to make significant changes to its course due to motorway enhancements.

Founded in 1909, Pike Fold relocated from its original site at Tweedale Hill Farm, between Plant Hill Road and Crab Lane in Higher Blackley, to Henshalls Farm, off Cooper Lane.

In 1998, the club was on the move again. The building of the M60, Manchester’s outer ring road, saw Pike Fold head several miles up the road to its current location at Back O’the Moss Farm, where it was originally a nine-hole layout until being extended to 18 in 2008.

bunkered has reached out to Pike Fold Golf Club for comment.

Alex Perry is the Associate Editor of bunkered. A journalist for more than 20 years, he has been a golf industry stalwart for the majority of his career and, in a five-year spell at ESPN, covered every sporting event you can think of. He completed his own Grand Slam at the 2023 Masters, having fallen in love with the sport at his hometown club of Okehampton and on the links of nearby Bude & North Cornwall.

Associate Editor