Golf Course Bunker Maintenance
Complete Golfer’s panel of judges who rank golf courses have found a recurring theme; generally bunkering lets down many otherwise well-maintained courses.
Patrick Schoutens of On-Course Solutions believes that his company has the answer for successful bunker maintenance!
Bunker maintenance
The condition of bunkers can certainly make or break a golf course, and besides the aesthetic value of these hazards, they can positively or negatively influence playability. On classic parkland-type bunkers, there is nothing better than having razor-sharp lips and beautifully groomed turf contrasting with perfectly raked sand. Every course superintendent knows that achieving and maintaining this look can be a nightmare. All too often bunker lips crumble, resulting in a rather ragged effect, and while the quick fix is to re-trim the lip using a sharp spade, this cannot be done too often as the bunker simply gets bigger. This obviously ends up adversely affecting the design integrity, and where this constant re-cutting of bunker lips has become common practice, a course designer will tell you that a year or two later he can hardly recognise his own work.