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Final Stages
During the winter of 1975-76 a local contractor, Mr Jack Brewer, was working at RAF St Athan, and for a period of time one of his machines, a ‘HYMAC’ and its operator were not being employed. The contractor, a keen golfer in his younger days, loaned the machine and the operator to the club for several weeks at no cost to the club. This was the turning point in the Club’s fortunes. At this time the club had negotiated with a firm of builders to accept the rubble and subsoil from their building site on the understanding that every tenth lorry load would carry top soil. Twenty-five lorry loads a day for ten days were deposited – the ‘HYMAC’ became very busy distributing these loads to the selected areas, filling, covering and landscaping, Every Saturday and Sunday, and over the Christmas and Easter holiday
periods there were small groups of people beavering away all over the course.
The Annual General meeting of the Golf Society took place on 26th November 1975.
The following are extracts from the minutes of that meeting;
l. The projected 9-hole golf course officially came into being with the election of Officers to manage the construction, layout, rules and finances of the course.
The Officers elected were;
Officer I/C: Flt lt Terry Williams
Course Manager: Chf Tech Dan Archer
2. It was proposed and seconded that no more officers be elected specifically for the golf course at this early stage, but that Chf Tech Dan Archer be given full powers to continue construction of the course as he had been doing since its inception and that further appointments required for the construction of the course be made by him, preferably from volunteers.
Starting in November 1975, the course manager produced a monthly report. An extract from his first report is as follows;
Hole l Tee, completed. Fairway, a small amount of filling required. Green, complete. Bunkers, right hand 60% finished, left hand 90% finished, Bank, requires tipped soil levelled and seeded.
Hole 2 Tee, under construction. Fairway, completed. Green, requires grading, topsoil and grading. Bunkers, left hand not started, right hand 30% finished. Bank requires grading.
Hole 3 Tee, not started. Fairway, complete. Carry, to be cleared of stones. Green, bottom tier 90% finished, top tier finished top soil and turf Bank, requires turf and seed.
Hole 4 Tee, under construction. Fairway, drains to be removed. Green, completed. Bunkers, not started. Bank, requires levelling and seeding.
Hole 5 Tee, not started. Fairway, complete except for two small mounds, Green, 90% finished, Banks, front, topsoil and seed ,rear, grade and seed, right hand, not started. Bunkers, not started.
Hole 6 Tee, requires grading and topsoil_ Fairway, complete. Green, not started.
Hole 7 Tee, requires grading. Carry, requires stone clearing. Green, not started.
Hole 8 Tee, not started. Fairway, requires stone clearance and removal of drains. Green, complete. Bunkers, not started.
Hole 9 Tee, not started. Fairway, holes to be filled. Green, 70% finished. Bunkers, front 70% finished, side and rear not started. Banks, require grading.
This was the state of the course just a few months after work had started.