Golf Course Architecture - Issue 66, October 2021

53 ceramics can decrease or even eliminate the need to cap courses. Or topdressing: some of the newer turf varieties produce less organic matter which ultimately can reduce topdressing needs. My club changes out its bunker sand every two years because of contamination. If we had a modern liner system in place, we could go much longer.” Echoing this theme, Capillary Concrete CEO Martin Sternberg highlights his firm’s new Wash Box, which allows course managers to pressure wash their bunker sand to remove contaminants. “One client of ours estimates that two man-hours spent washing saves about 6.4 tonnes of sand per year,” he says. Les Howkins, course manager of the Richmond club in England, takes a similar, technologically-driven line. “We renovated our bunkers ten years ago and had a proper engineered liner put in, and we use very little sand in them now,” he says. “It doesn’t go anywhere, and we don’t get contamination. The sand is as clean now as it was the day it went in. We buy one 20-tonne load each year and frankly we could get away with less. People use upturned turf and wonder why their sand is black every year from washing dirt off the faces.” GCA Despite the JCB course being built on a wet site in Staffordshire, Robin Hiseman opted to spread just enough sand to give a uniform seed bed