With the rich, long histories that so many golf clubs rightly take pride in, it’s rare that the opportunity comes along to truly start afresh.

But barely a year into the post of general manager at Basingstoke Golf Club, that’s the position David Green finds himself in. For three decades, Green’s career has taken him to some of southern England’s most picturesque countryside spots, with stints in Kent, Surrey, the New Forest… and now, on the edge of the North Downs.

“I hadn’t really heard about the project until June 2023 – they’d kept it really quiet,” said Green. “Prior to this I’d spoken to a few recruitment agencies like Timberlake Golf and Colt Mackenzie McNair to give them an idea of what I was looking for, but it was Scott Patience Consultancy that managed the recruitment process.”

Managers move around to take new jobs all the time – but unusually, in this case, the club itself had recently relocated. In 2021, Basingstoke Golf Club made the move to a new site in the village of Dummer, acquiring the land that once belonged to Dummer Golf Club.

While the change was geographically minute – just 400 metres – it signalled the start of a hugely ambitious plan. Dummer’s existing 18-hole course was to be completely redesigned, a state-of-the-art clubhouse constructed, and high-tech practice facilities developed. As projects go, it was as close to starting completely from scratch as most general managers will ever get.

Work began on the course in 2022 and, a year later, Green was appointed to oversee one of the UK’s most exciting golf projects in recent years. That was how he found himself in the uncommon position of managing a course that technically didn’t exist yet.

He said: “I started in November 2023 and had a really positive six-month period learning about the project, the club and its current structure and then supporting Kanda Golf with creating and readying a new governance structure for the new operating company to take on when it was time.

“Still, it was hard waiting for the course to be ready – it looked brilliant, but nobody could play it yet. I was longing for the spring to come so we could see some growth, and then to see our members start to enjoy some of the new course.”

Though Basingstoke is Green’s second role as general manager, his background is as a PGA pro, dating back to a spell as assistant professional at Princes Golf Club in Kent in the mid-1990s. In fact, golf was once his tertiary sport before Greg Norman’s 1993 Open Championship win at Royal St George’s – a tournament the locally-raised Green was working at – sparked a newfound passion.

“That just gave me a completely different outlook on the game,” he explained. “I had been a member at Princes since I was nine – a fabulous place to play, but golf wasn’t really my thing. Rugby and cricket were more my style, and golf became a pastime.

“But when I worked The Open in ’93, I saw the buzz about it for the first time. I was quite good without really trying – the pro at Princes even asked me if I had considered taking it up professionally.

“Four months into my A-levels, I thought: ‘I’m not enjoying this, let’s give golf a go’. I turned pro aged 18 and I haven’t looked back since.”

After getting playing experience on the Challenge Tour, Green taught at venues including Tandridge and Wildernesse and was director of golf at Farnham Park and Croham Hurst but, like so many in the industry and beyond, things have looked rather different since the Covid-19 pandemic.

“Covid gave me the opportunity to get out and hit the reset button, so I spent 12 months not really working,” he said. “I did a bit of coaching locally but really spent that time trying to work out what I wanted to do and reflect on what had been an interesting and exciting career up until that point.

“I decided that being an operator was what I wanted to go back to. I enjoyed teaching and I missed playing hugely – but the operation of golf excited me, and the opportunities at Paultons Golf Centre and Bramshaw Golf Club came up.

“I started in April 2021 at Paultons and then took on the group general manager role in later that year. That was quite a nice dynamic. It has just got something about it, the charm of the New Forest.”

After more than two years cutting his teeth as a general manager, Green heard about the opportunity at Basingstoke – at the time not a highly publicised opening.

“I saw the Basingstoke role advertised with CMAE,” he recalled. “Not knowing much about the club I did a bit of research and thought to myself what a fabulous opportunity so applied. I was in for two or three jobs at this time and no preconceptions that any of them would become my future.

“When I received the call from Scott Patience offering the position I was so elated as to be able to come in, finish the golf club off and set it up… you don’t really get many opportunities like that.”

Green arrived in Basingstoke when the course’s metamorphosis was already well underway. Weller Designs was commissioned to construct a new downland course, taking full advantage of the site’s undulating terrain to build an exciting but challenging layout.

“Before, the club was a really pleasant parkland golf course, of which there are hundreds if not thousands in the UK.

“If there was no opportunity to sell it, I think everybody at Basingstoke would have been quite content with what they had,” admits Green.

Instead, ten holes of the new-look course opened for play in June last year, and there has scarcely been a quiet tee sheet since.

“It has a stern test, yes – more than 6,800 yards off the back tees – but never in a way that hinders the players from having fun. I think there are half a dozen holes worthy of being a signature hole at most clubs.”

By the time all 18 holes were in play, in mid-September, the clubhouse was also ready to welcome members.

Architects Feilden+Mawson LLP, an architectural firm with a track record of working on clubhouses at the likes of Royal West Norfolk and Royal Norwich, worked closely with Basingstoke’s senior management team to devise a plan expressly for the club’s specifications.

The new focal point of Basingstoke Golf Club is spacious enough to house a bar, dining area, pro shop, conference space and changing facilities for members. Sleekly designed, the building even features a veranda with panoramic views across the golf course.

Outside, a new car park was laid down to meet the anticipated surge in demand. Even a purpose-built new greenkeepers’ building has opened on site in the last year.

“Our new clubhouse is absolutely magnificent,” said Green. “We moved in there last September, and it really does feel like home now. The members absolutely love it and it really gives them something they didn’t have before in terms of space. It is the perfect spot to unwind, and it really gives the club a communal feel.

“There’s a lot more to this place than we had at the previous site. There’s a bigger acreage to look after, a bigger footprint to the clubhouse, a grander greens facility, a driving range… there are so many components to this golf club that they didn’t have on the old site.

“Plus, there’s a lot more structure required to make sure that it operates as it should do and of course that all comes at a cost.

“The really exciting thing about the position we are in now is that the possibilities are so broad,” he added. “We have a fresh start on a really fantastic course and so many avenues available for us to explore.”