Golf Course Architecture - Issue 66, October 2021

52 just over 80,000 tonnes of sand for our project. That put approximately 200mm of sand over 25 hectares,” he says. “We were very fussy with the sand – it had to meet USGA specifications; if it hadn’t done so, the project would have failed.” While the Loch Lomond project has succeeded triumphantly, it is legitimate to ask how relevant such processes are to other courses. “There are a number of courses that we are working with that say, ‘we must sandcap’,” says Sam Thomas of GEO. “But to what depth? How much of the site do you want to cap? A lot of the time it is driven by the client’s golfing IQ – wanting to achieve something that isn’t feasible on their site. They believe they can buy in links conditions. But can they, and for how many years does the sandcap hold up? These questions really need to be answered by anyone before starting any kind of capping project.” At the recently completed JCB Golf & Country Club in Staffordshire, England, on a site that was almost as wet as Loch Lomond, architect Robin Hiseman of European Golf Design, took a different track. Although considering a sandcap of 150mm depth – which would have required 42,000 cubic metres of sand, Hiseman and his construction team changed their plans, and instead spread only 25mm of sand across the site, a total of 7,000 cubic metres, just enough to give a uniform seed bed. Extensive sand banding was also used to improve the drainage. “I’m not sure how much sand was put back in the bands, but the saving was in excess of a million pounds,” Hiseman says. Part of the solution to golf ’s reliance on sand will certainly be found through technology. “Our industry is slow to adapt on the design and construction side,” says John Holmes of grass supplier Atlas Turf. “Many architects are still using construction specs from twenty years ago. Take sandcapping: installing more drainage and using porous SAND CR I S I S “ We renovated our bunkers ten years ago and had a proper engineered liner put in, and we use very little sand in them now” Photos: JCB Golf & Country Club