including a 600 yard par 5, a 500 yard par 4 and a 215 yard par 3 (over water the whole way).
Bunker reconstruction
Due to the changing weather patterns here in Virginia a 100% efficient drainage system is very important for many reasons. Our members demand tournament conditions on a daily basis so, the day after a storm or heavy rain, means a very busy and long day for the greenkeeping staff. Our bunkers are the biggest problem due to the fact that they have very little drainage and wash out very easily. A typical morning fixing bunkers will take a crew of up to thirty, pumping out standing water, scraping out silt to prevent contamination, fixing washouts, raking the middles with a sandpro then, finally, hand raking. This is a tall order when we have seventy bunkers covering six acres. Our aim is to stay in front of the first tee time at 7.30am and, if we don’t achieve this, we have failed to provide what our members expect.
Over the past few years we have been installing new drainage in some of our bunkers, mainly aimed at better playability and less maintenance. The system is called Air-core. We have found this system prevents washouts, even on steep faces, and we have never seen any
standing water or silt collection, even after excessive rainfall. The Air-core bunkers are now so easy to get back into play. We simply sandpro the middle and hand rake the rest. The concept is very simple. It allows the water to run along the base of the bunker without taking any sand with it. To install the system we begin by cleaning out the bunker and removing any existing sand. To achieve the best results we shape the bunker rather like a kitchen sink, with a drain at the lowest point connected to a pipe that lets the water escape. The bunker is then lined, as if it were a pond, and a hole is cut where the drain is. We then line the bunker with drainage felt, a half inch thick mesh covered with felt. It comes in 25ft wide rolls so, in most cases, we can cut a piece that will fit the base of the bunker perfectly. This product allows the sand to sit on the felt with the mesh below.
The mesh allows the flow of water below the sand keeping all sand in place. Not only does this cut out sand movement, it keeps it in perfect condition. Once we have the felt and mesh in place we then replace all the sand, whacking it every six inches. We then shape the bunker with the sand. We do have different sand depths, due to the slightly bowled base not reflecting the surface shape of the sand, but this is
never a problem as the sand compacts down firm.
Our aim is for the faces to have a soft, one inch, cover of sand, so a ball would never stay up and would always roll down to the middle where we have two to three inches of soft sand. These are not our total sand depths, it is the top surface to allow for good playability. This is what we call the fluffy sand. Once we are one inch away from our desired sand level we would cut the liner around the edge just below the grass level and peg it into the side then, finally, finish the sand level off and whack and rake for the last time. We completed two bunkers in 2008 and aim to have all the bunkers completed over the next few years.
Tournament Setup
One of the main terms we use to describe our management practices is “attention to detail”. We pay great attention to the tournaments we hold throughout the year for our members. Having a big televised event, as we often do, is great but the members tournaments are equally, if not more, important. It takes some extra special work to achieve tournament conditions especially
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