#10 Bunker Renovation       

The turf crew has been busy the past two weeks here at Blue Hills Country Club. We have officially  begun our bunker renovation project. The project is needed for three main reasons: faster maintenance recovery after heavy torrential rains, less to no contamination of silt, and a better quality sand to play from. Let’s also mention the overall look this new sand will present, the pearly white sand contrasted against the emerald fairways, roughs, and greens. 

      In the past, when a heavy torrential rain has occurred the turnaround time to repair the bunkers was excessive. The majority of the sand on the high bunker faces would wash down to the lower end of the bunker. The only solution is to hand shovel the displaced sand back to the top as uniformly as possible. With this new bunker lining system the chance of washout decreases dramatically. Instead of complete bunker face washout it’s estimated to be minimal or none at best.

      The worst rains would wash the bunker faces and expose the drainage system inside the bunker. This led to contamination of sand, pea gravel, and silt which led to the longest of bunker recoveries. The previous bunker subsurface included soil, the drainage system, pea gravel on top, and then bunker sand. This new system is layered differently. As shown in the top picture, once the old sand is removed, we add a liner cut and glued to each specific bunker. The drainage system is improved with a separate lining system as well as a mesh material covering the pipe itself. This will allow rain water to properly percolate through the new sand and flow away without interruption. Once the pieces are in place, the new sand is filled in giving us an improved bunker system with aesthetically pleasing qualities that we can all enjoy. These renovations are designed to not only help us with maintenance practices, we feel that it will ultimately help you become a better bunker player.