Tag Archive for: Bunker

EcoBunker Pre-Cut Revolution Halves Bunker Build Time

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EcoBunker Pre-Cut Revolution Halves Bunker Build Time: 18 years after Richard Allen first conceived the idea of using synthetic turf to create low maintenance, high durability edging for bunker walls, industry pioneers EcoBunker have announced the latest in their long line of innovations in the sector – Pre-Cut synthetic tiles.

“EcoBunker Advanced was the last big step forward we took in bunker edge technology,” said Richard Allen, CEO of EcoBunker and inventor of synthetic bunker edging. “That enabled us to build bigger, stronger walls with fewer synthetic tiles, so the impact on the business and our bunkers was very dramatic. While our latest innovation, pre-cut tiles, might not be as obviously impactful, the results we are seeing from early adopters are quite remarkable.”

EcoBunker Pre-Cut Revolution Halves Bunker Build Time

EcoBunker Pre-Cut Revolution Halves Bunker Build Time

The process of installing traditional EcoBunker Advanced walls and edging involves the individual cutting of each tile to provide the flexibility required to shape the bunker wall. With the new pre-cut tiles, build time on each project is dramatically reduced, while quality, consistency and safety are all increasing.

“Pre-cut might not sound much, but an average bunker uses 750 synthetic tiles so that’s a lot of time saved! But it’s not just the cutting time,” continued Richard. “Greenkeeping staff have to wet pallets if they become dry, handle tiles with care when they turn them over, and they have to use a Stanley knife to hand-cut each tile. When you also account for all that time unstacking and re-stacking, we have been able to reduce the average bunker build by half on several projects. And when we pre-cut, each tile has exactly the same cut. This all adds up to a very high level of quality, consistency and durability.”

One club that has already used pre-cut tiles in the third phase of their work with EcoBunker is Lundin Links. Having previously used traditional EcoBunker Advanced technology, course manager, Gavin Neill, noticed an immediate and significant impact.

He said, “For the first two phases of our bunker restoration project we used EcoBunker Advanced and the results have been fantastic. The new bunkers look great and have significantly cut down on maintenance time. For the most recent phase we used the new EcoBunker pre-cut tiles and couldn’t believe the time we saved on installation. We are now able to build bunkers in half the time. Eliminating all on-site cutting also means that not only is it quicker, but it’s safer and reduces the number of waste tiles.”

While the introduction of pre-cut offers immediate advantages for clubs who are looking to build new bunkers themselves, the benefits of the new system are also available for clubs who want to commission a bunker project.

“As a contractor who regularly installs EcoBunker products, having the option to buy pre-cut Advanced Tiles is a major advantage for us. It removes the need to spend time on site cutting tiles, which immediately reduces labour hours, accommodation and travel costs, and allows us to offer more competitive and transparent quotes to clubs,” commented Andrew Greenslade, Managing Director at AMG golf course renovation. “Pre-cut tiles also mean we can start construction as soon as we arrive, rather than losing one or two days preparing materials. This keeps the programme tight and helps us deliver projects more efficiently.”

“We’ve introduced several advancements to the bunker sector, but this has actually been one of the most difficult to perfect.” concluded Richard. “Now we have the tooling and methodology to create consistent cuts every time, this will revolutionise the way in which greenkeeping teams approach a bunker project. All the advantages of EcoBunker technology remain – significantly lower maintenance, increased longevity, sustainability and zero sand contamination – and all of that is now accessible in half the time.”

For more information on EcoBunker please visit www.ecobunker.co.uk

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Weybrook Park GC Implements Sealed Bunker Solution

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Weybrook Park GC Implements Sealed Bunker Solution: Weybrook Park G.C. in Hampshire has just completed the full renovation of all 22 greenside bunkers on the back nine of its West course, in partnership with Bunker specialists EcoBunker.

Faced with an ongoing environmental battle born form a chalk based site, open landscape and menagerie of burrowing animals, EcoBunker and the team at Weybrook devised a fully sealed solution that is already reaping rewards for the club.

Weybrook Park GC Implements Sealed Bunker Solution

Weybrook Park GC Implements Sealed Bunker Solution

“The course was well regarded by members and visitors, but the bunkers were by far the most complained about feature. We are on a chalk based site so the bunkers were prone to erosion around the faces and edges, which didn’t look great and regularly contaminated the sand,” reported Luke Kenney, course manager at Weybrook Park G.C.

“In addition to contamination, the wind moved the sand around, and with 800 members, the footfall through bunkers made it very hard to maintain consistent playing conditions. Add in poor drainage and regular sand washout in heavy rain, and the bunkers were a real headache for the greenkeeping team and the club.”

In response to the challenge at Weybrook, the team consulted EcoBunker and agreed that a fully sealed bunker solution would address the issues faced at the club, while a training and self-installation plan would keep the project within budget.

“We knew that we needed a full bunker solution – liner, walls and edges – but we also needed to keep costs down, so a product that the team could fit ourselves was really important. Having researched the market, EcoBunker liner and edging was simple to fit in all conditions, incredibly durable over the long-term, and the team was happy to share its expertise and help us develop the necessary fitting skills in-house. Not only has the product been superb, the team at EcoBunker has been great to work with at every stage of the project.”

While EcoBunker synthetic edges and walls are known throughout the worldwide golf industry, a lesser known innovation is it’s EcoTec™ bunker liner featuring a proprietary filament matrix, seamless finish and forgiving playability.

“As soon as I saw the EcoTec liner I could visualise how efficient it would be holding the sand in place, which wasn’t the case with the alternatives I saw. We’ve also had feedback from the general manager on how forgiving it is on impact. He is really happy from a health and safety perspective, that golfers will be protected if they do play shots that reach through the sand.”

With the first 22 bunkers complete, the team at Weybrook is preparing for the next phases of the project, with a view to completing all bunkers on the West course within the next 3 years. With the initial phase being met with unanimous appreciation, the question only remains of how fast the team can work!

“The new bunkers look great,” concluded Luke. “The edges are sharp and tidy, we have no erosion or issues with animal damage, the maintenance burden has reduced and most of all our golfers are happy. The whole project has been a huge success and we look forward to finishing the course in phases over the next three years.”

And for more information on how EcoBunker can help meet the challenges faced at your course, visit www.ecobunker.co.uk

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Smithco Sprayers, Rollers and Bunker Rakes

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Smithco Sprayers, Rollers and Bunker Rakes: The Smithco range of golf course maintenance equipment will be on display at BTME as they return to BTME for 2024 on stand 604 in Hall 6.

The Spray Star range features four industry-leading, self-propelled, GPS-controlled sprayers with numerous control options including application rate, turn compensation pulse and the industry-leading 25cm nozzle spacing offering a 100% greater accuracy than competitors.

Smithco Sprayers, Rollers and Bunker Rakes

Smithco Sprayers, Rollers and Bunker Rakes

Smithco’s Tournament greens rollers provide fast, consistent and true putting surfaces. With rolling widths from 91 cm to 1.78 metres, there’s a machine ideal for maximum efficiency on your course.

Their commitment to cutting-edge technologies and environmentally-conscious products, such as the  Sand Star 48V Electric bunker rake, places their equipment in a class of its own. With 50 different attachments, Smithco’s bunker machines will meet any and all of your course’s needs.

Come and see the Smithco products on stand 604 in Hall 6.

www.smithco.com

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In-house bunker project

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In-house bunker project: Somerset Hills CC in New Jersey is close to finishing a bunker project involving the installation of the Capillary Bunkers lining system across the course, which was originally designed by legendary architect A. W. Tillinghast in 1918. 

“I started here in 2009 and the bunkers here were in bad shape then,” says course superintendent Ryan Tuxhorn. “We were looking at doing a bunker project then, and when we had a meeting with our architect, Brian Slawnik of Renaissance Golf Design, we discussed it and he told us he did not like the idea. He said that bunkers should be a finishing touch and it was more important to get mowing lines and playing surfaces right.”

In-house bunker project

In-house bunker project

Several years on, though, with Tuxhorn having the course mostly where he wanted it, the question of bunkers came up again. Although Somerset Hills’s bunkers, built fairly early in his career, are not the enormous, high-flashed traps often associated with Tillinghast, Tuxhorn knew he needed a liner, and also that, ideally, he wanted to do the work in-house.

That desire to fix the bunkers with his own crew led Tuxhorn to Capillary Bunkers. “Three years ago, we installed a few Capillary bunkers as a test, and in August 2019, we were more aggressive, opening up 16 smaller bunkers in advance of a visit by Brian, to check that we could install the liner in-house and complete the bunkers in timely fashion while still maintaining a golf course. And we found it was a comfortable process,” he says.

With Slawnik’s help, Tuxhorn divided his bunkers into three grades – going from one, which meant no work was needed to the outside at all and the only work was to the sub-grade including new drainage and installation of liner and move on to three, which meant a complete redo.

“By the end of next year we should be 95 per cent done,” he says. “At the moment we only have one green’s worth of bunkers to do and we have done some of the fairway bunkers too. The work is coming out great and the members are really happy with it. Last year, the workload was fine – we were pretty well staffed and my then Senior Assistant is a really good project manager. This year has been a little bit more difficult as he got a superintendent’s job and it has been really difficult to get staff. But I have been here a while and we’re pretty efficient with our practices. We have the golf course largely where we want it and it gives us some time to take on other projects. In August while we had college and high school help, we pushed pretty hard on it. It’s been a great project for us and I’m very proud of the results.”

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Capillary Concrete solving bunker problems

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Capillary Concrete solving bunker problems: The exclusive Loch Lomond Golf Club in Scotland is coming to the end of a huge four year renovation project – at a total cost of £7.5 million, probably the most costly in the history of British golf – in which 85 per cent of the golf course has been sand-capped (apart from the USGA greens), its drainage infrastructure rebuilt, its irrigation system completely renewed and its bunkers reconstructed using the Capillary Bunkers lining system.

Surrounded by mountains and next to Britain’s largest freshwater lake, Loch Lomond has always faced huge problems caused by its environment. “We have a lot of bunkers – and a lot of rain,” says David Cole MG, the club’s director of golf course and estates. “We average around 2000mm (79 inches of rain a year), and our bunker design has some steep faces in places. As a result, we have always suffered badly from washouts and contamination. Bunker maintenance is our second largest consumer of greenkeeping resources, second to greens – due to the design, the size (8500m2), the amount, the player expectations and the environment, it takes a lot of resources to prepare the bunkers internally and externally for play on a daily basis, and it was frustrating not being able to produce a consistently good product from this valuable resource due to the ageing infrastructure and the uncontrollable element of frequent rainfall.

Capillary Concrete solving bunker problems

Capillary Concrete solving bunker problems

Cole and his team, along with contractor Esie O’Mahony of GolfLink Evolve, have rebuilt the course from the bottom up. The new drainage pipes are laid in trenches lined with geotextile to reduce the ingress of fine particles, and the pipes themselves have been resized to deal with the volume of water. The project was planned to be completed over the winter of 2019/20, but the Covid-19 pandemic meant that two holes were left unfinished. Those have been dealt with over this winter.

In among this huge quantity of construction, Cole was determined to improve the consistency of the bunker presentation and reduce the internal bunker maintenance challenge. “We wanted to try to eliminate sand contamination and washouts and ensure we give our members a quality product no matter the weather,” he says. “After reviewing and trialling the options available, we selected Capillary Concrete throughout the project to line the bunkers. The product gives a lot of confidence. It’s concrete, so you know it is going to last, and the fact that you can install in wet weather situations is a huge plus for us as the renovation and installations took place throughout the wettest period of the year. The cost is obviously important – we are spending a lot of money on this project, but we are conscious that it is our members’ money, and we want to get good value for them – and Capillary Bunkers was very competitive.”

Cole says he is already seeing the benefits. “The simple fact is that we aren’t spending hours pushing sand back up bunker faces after rain. Ultimately since the liner has been installed the sand does not slip off the face after heavy rain events and daily preparations to present a good product for our members and guests is less labour intensive than previous. This allows us to focus more time on the detail work of internal bunker maintenance, and/or redirect resources to other priority areas that been neglected prior to this undertaking. Most days, three guys can deal with the internal bunker preparation, when previously it was five or six. Quantifying that isn’t easy and COVID-19 has not helped, but I think we may see a forty-fifty per cent reduction in resources we use preparing the internals of bunkers yet still producing a superior product.”

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