North Hants Golf Club
A Club with Heritage
Established 120 years ago, North Hants Golf Club is among England’s top 100 courses and is the home club of Justin Rose, former world Number 1 and 2025 Masters runner-up. A £1.3m refurbishment programme, guided by a masterplan from international architects Mackenzie & Ebert, has reimagined the course’s classic heathland character — reworking bunkering and timing perfectly with a comprehensive new Rain Bird® irrigation installation.
The seeds of change were planted seven years earlier. A small number of Rain Bird® 751 Series rotors were installed during the rebuild of a single green. Over the following two seasons, that solitary green used 50% less water than every other on the course. The only variable was the 751 rotors. That statistic became a catalyst: if one green could achieve that result, what could a full system upgrade deliver?
Designing for the Course — and the Future
With Giles Wardle of Irriplan already engaged on an irrigation design for the site, Golf Course Manager and Master Greenkeeper Sam Evans collaborated closely with Wardle to ensure the new irrigation layout aligned seamlessly with Tom Mackenzie’s bunkering masterplan. The old irrigation tank was removed and replaced with a modern breaker tank to provide mains water backup alongside the club’s existing reservoir.
The previous Rain Bird Stratus II system was replaced with a Rain Bird IC System™ managed by CirrusPRO™ Central Control. Existing twin-row fairway irrigation — comprising Rain Bird 950 Series rotors — was retained and extended with six additional rotors to create triple-row coverage in key areas. All decoders were switched to IC modules. Tees, greens, fairways, approaches, and surrounds previously receiving no water are now fully covered.
Commissioned in spring 2025 during an unusually hot, dry season, there was no time for a leisurely test phase. Contractor MJ Abbott got the system operational under pressure. Evans, his deputy Andy Reason, and irrigation technician Robert Schofield worked as a tight unit to learn the system in live conditions — a trial by fire that ultimately built deep confidence in both the technology and the team.
Precision Control — Changing the Game On and Off the Course
Before the upgrade, consistency was a persistent challenge. One teeing complex — four separate tee boxes — was controlled by just two block valves, meaning nine heads shared a single valve. Pressure imbalances made it impossible to achieve uniform moisture across all four tees, forcing staff to chase an average rather than a target. Now, each surface can be dialed in individually.
Evans describes himself as data-driven, with almost six years of historical turf records at his fingertips. Paired with the flexibility of CirrusPRO, that data becomes actionable: surfaces can be pushed harder for a marquee club event, confident that the irrigation system will respond accurately and bring them back. Night-time irrigation cycles and labour savings are already delivering visible results.
The Rain Bird® 752 Series rotors, meanwhile, have impressed with their versatility. A low-flow/normal control mode delivers a potential 9–25m throw, making a single rotor type equally at home on large fairways, tight bunker surrounds, and walkways.
In-House Capability Empowering the Whole Team
A major priority for Evans as Golf Course Manager is developing his team. With 11 full-time staff, he views CirrusPRO proficiency as a valuable career skill for everyone in the department. This winter, the club added nine new 752 IC modules around the course entirely in-house — no contractor required. It is a practical demonstration of how straightforward the system is to extend, and how much the team has taken ownership of it.
Evans is confident that 2026 will be the season when the full benefits of the upgrade are realised: more attention to high-traffic areas, improvements away from main playing surfaces, and the ability to demonstrate best-in-class water stewardship. North Hants enters that season with one of the most sustainable and capable irrigation systems in British golf — and a team that knows exactly how to use it.
All course photography credit to Ollie Ranstall Photography, @GreenkeepingFocus on Instagram
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