Bunkers have evolved since their days as windswept, naturally occurring sandy hollows in the landscape. High expectations for consistency, playability and aesthetics can quickly lead to bunkers becoming a serious drain on resources, which doesn’t make much sense for features that are meant to penalize errant shots. During USGA Course Consulting Service visits, conversations about reducing the amount of time and money spent on bunkers are common. Surprisingly often, filling in some bunkers is the best option for a facility. These decisions should not be taken lightly, and hiring a golf course architect to advise on design changes is recommended. Removing bunkers that excessively interfere with play or don’t add much value to the design can yield a return on investment in improved golfer experience and savings in the maintenance budget. To reduce costs, bunkers are commonly removed in-house. This type of project is manageable for many maintenance teams, but there are several important elements to doing the job right.
Removing the sand is an obvious first step. However, determining the extent to which sand has mixed into the surrounding native soil is not always so obvious. Getting rid of all the old sand in bunker floors and under the turf surrounding the bunker can be challenging, but it’s a high priority so that a drought-stressed area where the bunker used to be does not become a new problem. Consider rototilling the bunker surrounds after it appears that all the sand is removed because this reveals where more sandy soil may need to be excavated and the tilling process helps blend the bunker removal area back into the surrounding topography. When removing sod around the bunker, strip well away from the edges to allow room for smooth shaping rather than abrupt slopes that make the old bunker location obvious. Avoid burying old sand, even if it is well mixed with native soil, as this sand can create dry spots or a perched water table. Before adding any soil, remove or cap the old drainage unless it’s still needed for the renovated area. Use a backfill material that is compatible with the native soil to promote consistent turf performance in the future. More than once, I have seen aeration cores repurposed for fill, but their high sand content does not retain enough moisture, a lot of settling often occurs, and the new turf suffers. During shaping, settling is your enemy, so compact the fill often and double-check for adequate surface drainage in the reshaped area. You also want to make sure that changing how surface water flows doesn’t create new problems in nearby areas.
Bunkers have their place in golf, but if a bunker very rarely comes into play or impedes players that don’t need any more obstacles, erasing it might be best. There is more to that process than just replacing sand with grass. Take the time to thoughtfully plan the removal, address drainage needs, and correctly tie the new landform into the surrounding area. When done properly, you should never be able to tell that a bunker was there.
Northeast Region Agronomists:
Darin Bevard, senior director, Championship Agronomy – dbevard@usga.org
Elliott L. Dowling, regional director, East Region – edowling@usga.org
Brian Gietka, agronomist – bgietka@usga.org