Royal Guernsey Golf Club, on the island of Guernsey off the coast of northern France, has completed the first phase of a multi-year bunker project.

The project began in December 2017, when EcoBunker construction manager Llewelyn Matthews built a test bunker on the club’s short game practice area.

The success of this trial convinced Royal Guernsey to sign up for a three-year project to rebuild all the existing 31 bunkers on the course, and to add some new fairway bunkers in the last phase.

Matthews returned to the links – also home to the L’Ancresse Golf Club – in November 2018 for a refresher training exercise. “These bunkers needed to be right as they would be around for a long time,” said course manager Marcus Hamon. “Llewellyn didn’t let me down and the rebuilt bunkers look great and sit nicely in the undulations of the golf course.”

EcoBunker CEO Richard Allen said: “The success of the Royal Guernsey project is a testimony to the effectiveness of our EcoBunker Advanced process, which reduces the weight of turf required to build a bunker by the use of cantilevering and a cement-modified backfill. This both strengthens the bunker wall, and dramatically reduces the shipping costs of the product.”

Hamon said: “The members of the golf club are delighted with the 15 bunkers that have been rebuilt. The bunkers at L’Ancresse have been a weak area for a number of years and the new EcoBunkers have totally transformed bunkering on the course. We are looking forward to the winter of 2021 and the completion of the bunker rebuilding programme.”