Dealing with bunker sand splash

Hello everyone

The focus of this particular blog and our recent work, has been addressing sand splash from bunker play.

The bunkers/surrounds that have been completed so far are 1st greenside, 3rd left hand greenside, 4th left hand greenside whilst the 8th greenside is currently approaching completion. 

The rationale for dealing with sand splash (as part of bunker renovations) is as follows:

• to lower the overall depth of the bunker face to its original level
• by virtue of restoring the original levels, the difficulty of the bunker is less severe for a range of golfing abilities
• to remove bunker sand that effectively 'top dresses' the bunker surround so that the surround won't dry out/burn off in hot weather
• to enable the bunker to be replenished with new bunker sand - much of which has been lost to sand splash

This bunker, on the left of the 3rd green, demonstrates perfectly what we have been dealing with. In the top photo, you can see the quantity of sand splash above the finger gouge mark in the profile whilst the bottom photo just shows the sand splash once the turf has been stripped. Yes, that is white bunker sand you can see on the surround.

It becomes blatantly obvious of the effect this has on the bunker once this excess sand is removed and the contouring is adjusted to restore the shape of the bunker to its original construction grade. Since 2015, when this bunker was originally constructed, approximately 5-6 inches of sand has been dressed onto the bunker/greens' surround. So, the comments of the bunker "not having enough sand in" is fair - but it has gone somewhere and now you know where!

The above photos provide an alternative perspective, just for context. The gradient of the contour - from bunker edge to green is considerably different before and after.

Similarly, we have a before and after of the 1st greenside bunker. Consider how less intimidating this bunker now is. More greens' surface is visible in the bottom photo and we are future proofing the surround too in anticipation of continued sand splash from this point forward. It's the Forth Road Bridge analogy but applied to bunkers.

Again, another perspective on the 1st and we also took the opportunity to raise the surround and the significant low spot that is visible in the top photo. With the bottom photo, the surround now ties in a more subtle manner to the surrounding contours. It's a near seamless transition from the approach & surround to the bunker. To golfers (perhaps green fee visitors) less accustomed to the golf course, the changes will be unnoticeable but hopefully members will recognise the marginal differences.

The 8th greenside bunker is the same story. This bunker was constructed in the winter of 2018/2019 when the new (8th & 9th) greens were constructed. 4 years later, we have 6 inches of sand splash on the top of this bunker. It's a well visited bunker, evidently. We are also checking the drainage whilst we do this work as well as lining the bunker with turf (to prevent sand contamination of the drain) prior to adding fresh sand. Again, the bunker will appear more shallow once this is finished. 

Hopefully, this mini-blog explains in a bit more detail the mischief we've been up to on the golf course. For anyone who would like to ask any related questions then by all means drop me an email or ask Ali or myself if you see us out on the golf course. We'll be happy to go through it.

All that remains now is fresh bunker sand, edging and a whole bunch of positive comments from golfers about how much easier it is to play out of these bunkers in 2023 onwards. 

Don't say we don't do anything for you!!

Kind regards

Ben