The seventh hole at Aphrodite Hills is nothing short of spectacular.
Hitting over a ravine from a tee box carved into the hillside, the dramatic par three features a shot into an island style green set in the middle of a canyon.
When Andy Sullivan got his first glimpse of the hole last week, he said he was keen to speak to the architect about how he could possibly have visualised the seventh hole when he designed Aphrodite Hills.
"It’s very picturesque – some of the holes over that gorge are absolutely phenomenal.
“I’d love to get in touch with the architect and find out how he’s seen a golf hole on seven – it’s fantastic. I really enjoyed it.“
We took the question to designer Cabell B. Robinson, who responded with an explanation that the hole came to fruition after original plans for a bridge connecting the two plateaux of the site weren’t possible.
He said: “On my various visits to the site I had noticed a nice natural shelf down inside the canyon, surrounded by olive trees. Ostensibly inaccessible, impractical to include in my initial plans for the course.
“The original concept was to connect the two plateaus via a major bridge, walking across, looping five or six holes and then returning to west side via the same bridge.”
There were environmental concerns about the bridge, and when it proved to be too expensive, the compromise was a lower profile road crossing that resulted in a long route from the back tees at the third hole to the fairway – another one of Aphrodite Hills’ impressive holes.
Trying to find an acceptable course routing ran into further difficulties due to housing considerations, and forced Robinson to “look for a different way back” across the ravine.
“Then the bridge disappeared, so a closer look was needed,” he explained.
“The setting was spectacular, the area large enough, only minimal “shaping” would be required, and the result could be an island-type signature par 3 for the project. So, the major obstacle — the creation of an acceptable green complex— appeared surmountable.”
The most difficult part then, was not to create the green, but to find a way down and back up in the middle of the ravine.
Site engineer Zenon Papaloizou questioned Robinson’s vision, but after days spent tracking goat paths for routes and using a mini-excavator, his determination to make the hole a reality began to be realised.
“Now all we had to do was to find a way down from the sixth green to seven and back up to the eighth tee.
“Aphrodite Hills’ quintessential site engineer, Zenon Papaloizou, questioned the sanity of this weird American golf course architect, requesting politely more than once a plan for the proposed cart path. Hopefully as politely as he had been, I told him no, give James McLeod (my Scots-born construction supervisor) and me a track- mounted mini backhoe and we would build it. Then he could GPS it to plan as an as-built.
“James and I spent a couple of days tracking old goat paths up and down the canyon face, eventually deciding on what we felt would be a plausible and buildable solution. And then the mini-excavator inched and clawed its way from the ford at the bottom of the gorge up to the road behind the sixth green. With stout protective guardrails, speed bumps, and some texturing it has proved to be relatively safe. At the very least it gets you from A to B, and it’s a hell of a ride!
“Halfway down, we managed to carve out some small platforms for tees. Not ideal for a short par 3 but about the best we could do. And it’s an awesome shot from there.
“Fortunately the cart path from the green on up to the eighth tee was far easier, especially thanks to the tunnel under the entry avenue to the development.
“With the considerable faith of a non-golfing project engineer, the experience and determination of a golf construction supervisor, and a bit of imagination all around, the creation of hole number seven was, as we say, a piece of cake”.
The result is a visually stunning 171 yard par three, which played as the sixth easiest hole during the Aphrodite Hills Cyprus Open, with an average of 2.88 throughout the week. During Sunday’s final round, Ricardo Santos recorded the only hole in one of the week at this hole.
