Now, the vision has become a reality and the marine scenes captured in two new course sculptures look better than he imagined.
Mr Beattie said about three or four years ago, two large macrocarpas were felled beside the sixth fairway- on a hole known as "Sea View".
The trees were ageing and sucking moisture from the fairway.
One stump was more than 4m tall, the other was about 2m.
"We left them like that because I had visions of this when I cut them down.
"They certainly weren’t scenic — they were just sitting there waiting for something to happen."
Then, last year, he saw the work of Blenheim artists Jakob and Katie Stadler, who carved a wapiti stag from a macrocarpa in North Canterbury that was featured in a local agricultural newspaper.
Mr Beattie contacted the couple and they discussed the brief — the larger tree would be turned into dolphins leaping from waves, the smaller tree would be transformed into a scene of penguins.
Mr Beattie commissioned the work.
Two and a-half weeks ago, the Stadlers drove south to Waikouaiti in a campervan, completed the work and left on Tuesday.
"It’s tremendous — much better than envisaged," Mr Beattie said.
Mr Stadler said his wife, a graphic artist, started their projects by creating the images the sculptures were to be based on.
He then blocked out the rough shapes with chainsaws, which he then refined with smaller saws, grinders and woodworking chisels from his native Switzerland.
Every tree was different, each presenting its own challenges.
"People ask ‘How do you do it?’
"And I say, ‘I don’t really know’," Mr Stadler said.
Club president Gerard Vallely said the sculptures were already attracting the attention of passers-by, who stopped to admire the work.
"They’re amazing," he said.
"It’s way, way above what we ever imagined."
