The first phase of a bunker renovation project at Astbury Golf Club in Cheshire, UK, has been completed.

The club was established in 1922, and the bunkers on its parkland course had not been worked on since that time.

Following a membership survey, Gaunt Golf Design was brought in to survey the course and create a bunker masterplan for the club.

Jonathan Gaunt has looked to add character to the Astbury course through its bunkering. The first part of the plans he has drawn up have now been implemented by Duncan Ross of sportsturf, land drainage and greenspace specialists Duncan Ross Ltd.

The first phase has focused on holes one and thirteen at Astbury Golf Club, and the project’s second phase is set to get underway later in the year.

Gaunt described the bunkers at Astbury as being ‘not to be too severe to play from and visually attractive and in view from the tee or approach’, adding that Ross has interpreted this really well in his work thus far.

“They asked me to provide them with a masterplan and that included if bunkers should be filled in, repositioned, reshaped or remodelled,” Gaunt explained. “I worked my way around the course and came up with an 18-hole master plan, and that plan has become their blueprint for future works.”