LOCKED-down golfers throughout Britain are hoping playing restrictions will be eased in the next few weeks – and few are more eager to get the ball rolling than members of Leighton Buzzard’s Plantation Road club.

With a return to “limited golf” eagerly anticipated, Leighton members will return to action as commissioning of a new state-of-the-art irrigation system system nears completion.

Though work on the £600,000 project has been interrupted as a result of government measures to halt the spread of the corona virus, the last major element of the project – the installation of a massive storage tank, capable of holding 500 cubic metres of useable water, has almost been completed.

The tank will be coupled to a new borehole which will deliver around 20-cubic metres of water a day and then pumped through a labyrinth of pipework to around 500 sprinkler heads on tees, fairways, greens and approaches on the 18-hole parkland course.

Eleven kilometres of cabling to a central fully automated control system will enable the club to maximise the benefits of maintaining healthy growing conditions while minimising the use of water and demands on the domestic supply system.

The new system replaces limited watering facilities installed over 35 years ago which had become unreliable and costly to maintain.

The Leighton club, which has a limited number of membership opportunities available, was established in 1925, with preparations now underway to celebrate its centenary in 2025.