Golf Course Bunker Sand

Excerpt from an interview with Kevin Norby, Herfort Norby golf course designers.

Kevin – what can you tell us about golf course bunker sand size?

Depending on where you are in the country, there is some very good local bunker sands. The USGA has a standard of what they consider an acceptable sand.

A little bit coarser sand with some particles that are more angular rather than round, will set up so that the ball doesn’t plug or get buried. In addition, you can irrigate your bunkers if you have the budget to do that, to keep them a little bit firmer and more consistent.

There are sands out there that are a very white and sands that are a little bit darker. In the Midwest, we tend to have sands that are a light brown in color. In the southeast and throughout much of Arkansas and Ohio the sands are quite light in color.

To some degree, which sand we choose is a function of play-ability and budget. It is up to the owners whether they want a dark or a light sand and whether they want to spend the money for it. You can spend $13 to $15 for a good local sand or you can spend over $100 a ton for a premium white sand that’s imported… and you may or may not like the way it plays.

What about getting the bunkers to play consistently?

If you’re starting with a new golf course and you’re bringing in the same sand, you can easily make sure that the depth of your bunkers is consistent.

The problem that we often see is when over the years, some of the bunkers may have had sand added or removed or replaced so there can be a considerable problem with consistency from bunker to bunker. You’re dealing with a variety of sands and depths.

What about drainage problems with bunkers?

What you might find is that the capes of the bunkers have eroded over time and some of the soil from the edges of the bunkers have worked their way down into the sand and contaminated the sand. Once this happens, the sand becomes very firm.

If the bunkers aren’t draining properly, they have probably long since been contaminated and are probably in needing of being rebuilt. Sometimes the drain tile has been crushed and sometimes we find bunkers that never had drainage installed.

What are the kinds of things you can do for a golf course that has inconsistent sand in their bunkers? How can they fix that problem?

Frequently the golf course owner or Greens Committee members will look at bunkers more from the standpoint of how important they are visually to the golf course. We try to help them understand that removing the sand and completely rebuilding the bunker with new drainage, new sand, new edges and new capes is really the best way to go about making the bunkers play consistently.

It’s not just a matter of adding new sand or removing the old sand. You probably have to go and completely renovate the bunker, make sure that water is draining away from the bunker, make sure that drainage is working properly in the bottom of the bunker. Then you want to go in and re-shape the bunker and put in new sand.

It’s a process of educating people to understand why they have to do a little more work than what they were anticipating. The golf course superintendent generally seems to understand these problems a little better because they’re in there working on the bunkers and recognize that the solution is more complicated than just replacing the sand.

To create consistent bunkers, do you have to do all of the bunkers at the same time or is there another way to solve this problem?

The only way to get all the bunkers to play with any degree of consistency is to insure that they all have the same sand and the same amount of sand. You can do them a few at a time by starting with the worst ones but eventually you’ll end up doing them all. What we generally propose is completing a hole by hole analysis of the golf course and then developing a phasing strategy for completing the improvements.

About the Author

Colin Goehring is a golf writer and presents seminars on the topic of golf marketing. You can see more of his profile and his work at www.golfmarketing.biz

Drilling a well – Part 1

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