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Jeffrey Stein

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Building Old Macdonald's Strath Bunker
« on: March 20, 2010, 06:45:34 PM »
I have been eager to share these photos with the Atlas community, as I am sure many will take some interest in them.  The construction of this sod faced bunker took place over three days in mid-April of 2009.  I worked with three different people and got my first taste of building under pressure as the hydro-seeder was approaching to cap the finishing touches to the #2 Green and its surrounds, before the wind blew it away.

Day 1:  Plenty of sand and sod scraps to work with laying in the middle of the sandy pit.  There was lots of leg work in cutting 2-3ft strips of sod from the nursery, loading them up on the rig, and driving about 10 minutes back to the bunker.  The sod is fairly pliable but still needs plenty of customizing and cutting to get the right fit around the curve of the wall.  We started with wider "anchor" strips to ensure a solid base for the revetting of the bunker.  This was my first big assignment and I probably got a bit carried away with the anchoring but I am fairly certain this bunker isn't going to collapse beacause of a poor foundation.  I was assisted in this by Jim Urbina who lasered the base of the sod wall to ensure it being level for all 180 degrees  ;D

Jim gave me specific instructions, asking for "2-fingers" of space to set back each row of sod, to achieve a playable convex angle.  Each row of sod was secured by hammerering a tamper into a long 2x4 and then checked by the level.  We used the wet sand like putty to fill in the gaps as not all the sod was cut to the same depth.

Day 2 and 3 coming soon...
I love the smell of hydroseed in the morning.
www.steingolf.com

Adam Clayman

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Re: Building Old Macdonald's Strath Bunker
« Reply #1 on: March 20, 2010, 08:16:14 PM »
Thanx for this post. It's been too long since we've seen nuts and bolts like this.
"It's unbelievable how much you don't know about the game you've been playing your whole life." - Mickey Mantle

Dale Jackson

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Re: Building Old Macdonald's Strath Bunker
« Reply #2 on: March 20, 2010, 08:27:00 PM »
This is great, more PLEASE.

I know Mr Mingay will have photos of his work at Victoria GC that would be of interest as well.
I've seen an architecture, something new, that has been in my mind for years and I am glad to see a man with A.V. Macan's ability to bring it out. - Gene Sarazen

Tim_Weiman

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Re: Building Old Macdonald's Strath Bunker
« Reply #3 on: March 20, 2010, 08:44:40 PM »
Jeffrey,

I second Adam Clayman's comment that it is nice to see this kind of post. Old Macdonald has to be one of the more interesting projects in the past twenty years. It was nice to see the course as it was taking shape and it will be very nice to get back and see the finished product.

One thing I'll never forget is seeing Tom and Jim discuss Old Macdonald's Road Hole. I think they were debating the angle of the hole relative to the original in St Andrews. So, what did Jim do? He got on his I Pod and to Google Earth if I'm not mistaken and showed it to Tom.

Truthfully, I don't know whether that resolved their debate, but it was a pretty cool moment to say the least!
Tim Weiman

Jim Colton

Re: Building Old Macdonald's Strath Bunker
« Reply #4 on: March 20, 2010, 08:55:24 PM »
Jeffrey,

I second Adam Clayman's comment that it is nice to see this kind of post. Old Macdonald has to be one of the more interesting projects in the past twenty years. It was nice to see the course as it was taking shape and it will be very nice to get back and see the finished product.

One thing I'll never forget is seeing Tom and Jim discuss Old Macdonald's Road Hole. I think they were debating the angle of the hole relative to the original in St Andrews. So, what did Jim do? He got on his I Pod and to Google Earth if I'm not mistaken and showed it to Tom.

Truthfully, I don't know whether that resolved their debate, but it was a pretty cool moment to say the least!

Isn't this same way raynor settled the same debate with cb mac at Yale?

Thanks for the post. I love this stuff. How much does a bunker like this cost to make vs a traditional bunker?


Brett_Morrissy

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Re: Building Old Macdonald's Strath Bunker
« Reply #5 on: March 20, 2010, 09:40:48 PM »
ditto on the thread, real life actuals - fascinating.

I am interested in the cost also, and of particular personal interest is the cost of new vs to renovate a bunker and change it to a sod wall, would the costs be more to build from scatch as at OMD and/or less to renovate and existing shaped bunker that is suffering and would benefit from a nice sodded face?
@theflatsticker

Tiger_Bernhardt

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Re: Building Old Macdonald's Strath Bunker
« Reply #6 on: March 21, 2010, 01:00:48 AM »
Thanks and I third Adam. Jim Urbina will like Tom rise to the top of his profession and hopefully get the praise he deserves during his professional career. I had the pleasure of meeting Jim duing construction of Pac Dunes. I playe dthe 11 holes in place with he and Tom. Jim did an incredible job of describing what Tom was trying to do with every hole and then add his view. It will always be a memorable day. Tom has one of the great minds in the world of golf architecture but Jim can articulate the vision.

Kevin Pallier

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Re: Building Old Macdonald's Strath Bunker
« Reply #7 on: March 21, 2010, 07:57:24 AM »
Cheers Jeffrey for the great education

Having seen the final product - am interested to see how you got there.

Gary Slatter

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Re: Building Old Macdonald's Strath Bunker
« Reply #8 on: March 21, 2010, 08:32:34 AM »
Good stuff Jeff!   I will try to get Nial Ballingal to also contribute - he has built some superb bunkers and might even tell us what happens when some of the walls are too steep!
Gary Slatter
gary.slatter@raffles.com

Jud_T

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Re: Building Old Macdonald's Strath Bunker
« Reply #9 on: March 21, 2010, 09:29:15 AM »
Jeffrey,

These pix are awesome.  I'm sure we'll all be thinking kind thoughts of you when we end up down in the pit!   ;D
Golf is a game. We play it. Somewhere along the way we took the fun out of it and charged a premium to be punished.- - Ron Sirak

Tim Nugent

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Re: Building Old Macdonald's Strath Bunker
« Reply #10 on: March 21, 2010, 10:38:13 AM »
ditto on the thread, real life actuals - fascinating.

I am interested in the cost also, and of particular personal interest is the cost of new vs to renovate a bunker and change it to a sod wall, would the costs be more to build from scatch as at OMD and/or less to renovate and existing shaped bunker that is suffering and would benefit from a nice sodded face?

Brett, I too was curious after visiting across the pond so I built 3 revetted bunkers on a chipping green (I figured nothing is scarier that a wall, so if golfers could get used to escaping from these, anything else would seem to be a piece of cake).  I did a shallow 18"-2' at 20 yards, a medium 3'4' greenside and a 5'-7' behind the green.

As for cost, yes - way more expensive.  For the deep one, we used a whole semi-truck of sod (1,300 sy @ $1.20).  Then the labor to lay it - 4 guys, better part of a day.  We also found that after a few yrs, the sod settled and shrank some - causing separation around the top.  Granted, this was on clay soils so drainage wasn't what it would be like in sandy soils.  Also, as the grass died back on the face, dirt would erode into the bunker and contaminate the sand.  The also make for great habitate for Voles and field mice to borrow in the seams in the faces, which causes a whole another set of problems. 

In the positve, they don't wash in rainstorms, don't need to be hand mowed or really ever edged like other bunkers.

If I ever built another, I would probably install spray/mist irrigation heads around the top - especially if it were facing south or west.
Also, cut my own sod - as thick as I could with a fescue/bluegrass blend.

Any others who built these, do you prefer "green side up" or "soil to soil, grass to grass".  I've heard of both ways but settled for the "green side up" option.
Coasting is a downhill process

MHiserman

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Re: Building Old Macdonald's Strath Bunker
« Reply #11 on: March 21, 2010, 10:46:02 AM »
Fantastic! Thank you for sharing. 
It was wonderful to play out of last Fall.

I cannot wait for June!  ;D
"Whether my schedule for the next day called for a tournament round or a trip to the practice tee, the prospect that there was going to be golf in it made me feel priviledged and extremely happy, and I couldn't wait for the sun to come up the next morning so that I could get on the course"-BH

Jaeger Kovich

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Re: Building Old Macdonald's Strath Bunker
« Reply #12 on: March 21, 2010, 10:06:25 PM »
Do you need any special types of sod/grass to do this? I've got to imagine the more tolerant, and thicker the strain the better. Also, if you cut the sod yourself, do you cut it at the radius you are going to build or just cut straight and lay it down in curves?

Jeffrey Stein

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Re: Building Old Macdonald's Strath Bunker, Day 2
« Reply #13 on: March 23, 2010, 03:07:03 AM »
Great response! definately more pics coming

Day 2:  We started early and hit the sod hard, this photo shows us approaching the edge (or so it seemed), we thought the sod should come up to the line projected by the level.  It turned out that much sand needed to be added to back fill and meet the edge of the green in a natural contour.

"Hey lets get to work!"  Carl Johnson pictured here, long time shaper, and brother of Eric Johnson, super at Bandon Dunes, Carl helped get the bulk of the sod layed down in an assembly line like effiency.

This is what the sod cutting process looked like. To answer the questions of Jim C, Brett M, and Jaeger about cost, refer to Tim N and his comments. There is also a great article in Paul Daleys Golf Architecture Vol 3.  The sod was all fescue and stood up to some roughing up.  We decided that grass up was the best look, after some debate.  We cut mostly straight but each brick still had to be trimmed here and there.  In building this 5' plus wall we cleaned out more than half of our turf nursery.  Hence, my super was less than thrilled that we had been using more anchors than deemed necessary, at this point we made our strips a bit thinner. 

In answer to the question of spray heads, I believe 4 or 5 of these were installed around the top edge of the bunker.  The issue being to keep the sand wet so that it would not fly out of the bunker on a windy day, this bunker is so deep that the sand doesnt really blow out to my knowledge.


Tim W:  Yes Jim can be very persuasive in a charming way..., about the road hole, I'm not sure how that really got worked out but Mr. Doak once illustrated to me how the back edge of the road bunker was 15 paces to the back of the real green and 17 paces at Old Mac.  Cape Kidnappers #14 also has a road hole replica green, I'll have to pace that one off, it may actually be smaller?

Day 3 next...
« Last Edit: March 23, 2010, 03:16:04 AM by Jeffrey Stein »
I love the smell of hydroseed in the morning.
www.steingolf.com

George_Williams

Re: Building Old Macdonald's Strath Bunker
« Reply #14 on: March 23, 2010, 11:40:54 AM »
Jeffrey-  it looks like there's no drain tile in there.  Is that the case, since the site is sandy?  Also, was native, on-site sand used as the "sand" in the finished product or was some brought in from off-site?  Thanks...

Tom_Doak

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Re: Building Old Macdonald's Strath Bunker
« Reply #15 on: March 23, 2010, 06:09:47 PM »
Jeffrey:

I am at The Renaissance Club now and today Paul Seago's crew did the resodding work around five or ten new bunkers that they have revetted over the past two weeks.  The tie-ins are amazing!  Most of the crew has been doing this work at Gullane or Muirfield or Luffness for years and they are just amazing at it.

Bill_McBride

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Re: Building Old Macdonald's Strath Bunker
« Reply #16 on: March 23, 2010, 06:13:31 PM »
Jeffrey:

I am at The Renaissance Club now and today Paul Seago's crew did the resodding work around five or ten new bunkers that they have revetted over the past two weeks.  The tie-ins are amazing!  Most of the crew has been doing this work at Gullane or Muirfield or Luffness for years and they are just amazing at it.

I saw the work that crew was doing at Muirfield when we were all in East Lothian in March 2007.  They are skilled indeed, wish I had taken some photos.

Jeffrey Stein

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Re: Building Old Macdonald's Strath Bunker
« Reply #17 on: March 23, 2010, 06:21:23 PM »
No drain tiles...all native sand to my knowledge, we did take plenty of sand from the nearby "sahara" bunker, which can be viewed from the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd tees...

View from 1st tee, early morning


Sahara bunker, pretty raw, still in construction, the rain and wind took care of the finish work
I love the smell of hydroseed in the morning.
www.steingolf.com

Jeffrey Stein

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Re: Building Old Macdonald's Strath Bunker
« Reply #18 on: March 23, 2010, 06:30:16 PM »
Mr. McBride and Mr. Doak,

I remember talking to Brian Slawnik about getting a Muirfield look to tie-in the top edge of the bunker to the green.  I even brought my lap top out to the site to show Brian what we had been discussing (because I did not have a printer).  The pictures I have seen of those bunkers are indeed incredible craftsmanship.  I'm considering a stay in Scotland in my near future to get a first hand look.
I love the smell of hydroseed in the morning.
www.steingolf.com

Jeffrey Stein

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Re: Building Old Macdonald's Strath Bunker Day 3
« Reply #19 on: March 23, 2010, 07:14:50 PM »
Day 3:  The sprint to the finish, tie-in and hydro-seed

After two long days of wrestling with hundreds of strips of wet sod, the rest of the Old Mac crew was getting much closer to capping the green than anticipated.  I learned that much of the construction process can be flowing and dynamic, escpecially with the way that RGD gets the work done, except when a green needs to be capped with hydroseed to preserve their work from the wind (I remember the green being wet down a few times that morning prior to hydro-seed).  While the surrounds of the #2 green were being prepped and seeded, I was working hard with another fresh pair of hands, Jonathan Reister, as Jim U kept a close eye on our finish work, asking when we were going to finish.  My goal was to finish before lunch, but this was not possible as more sand was needed for back filling the sod wall and tie-in all around the top edge (especially on the left and right).

Far from finished, the top edge needed 2 or 3 toro's of sand to bring the bunker up to the edge of the green.



A day after hydo-seed...


A view straight up and out of the Strath...finally!


A view from the meadow right of the 2nd tee


Looking at the finished product, I believe that we did achieve the "look" that we had discussed and the bunker seems to fit the contours of the surrounds as well.  A random bunker from Muirfield


I am very proud of the work that I put into this bunker and thank-ful for those who helped me get it done.  Also I am very thankful to Jim U and RGD who trusted a complete newbie at such an integral part of our Eden hole (I barely new what the back side of a landscape rake looked like when I started).  It's still hard to wipe the smile of my face when I think about how much fun I had on this project.
I love the smell of hydroseed in the morning.
www.steingolf.com

Kevin Pallier

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Re: Building Old Macdonald's Strath Bunker
« Reply #20 on: March 23, 2010, 09:47:03 PM »
Jeffrey (and other sod experts)

With the amount of balls that get plonked into the bunker walls from approches or in the bunker - what is generally considered the "normal" timeframe before the need to resod ?


Marty Bonnar

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Re: Building Old Macdonald's Strath Bunker
« Reply #21 on: March 24, 2010, 11:01:39 AM »
Jeffrey,
pretty nice job. If I was going to be critical (and I am) I'd suggest that the revetment could maybe have done with being taken further 'back' around the bunker sides and/or rear. Small complaint really, but I think the transitions would have worked out a bit better for you. Sounds like you were maybe running out of turf though.
Come visit the Auld SOD sometime soon!
cheers,
FBD.
The White River runs dark through the heart of the Town,
Washed the people coal-black from the hole in the ground.

Jud_T

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Re: Building Old Macdonald's Strath Bunker
« Reply #22 on: March 24, 2010, 04:12:10 PM »
Jeffrey:

I am at The Renaissance Club now and today Paul Seago's crew did the resodding work around five or ten new bunkers that they have revetted over the past two weeks.  The tie-ins are amazing!  Most of the crew has been doing this work at Gullane or Muirfield or Luffness for years and they are just amazing at it.

Tom,

I assume these are new bunkers on the existing holes and that work hasn't commenced out on the point?
Golf is a game. We play it. Somewhere along the way we took the fun out of it and charged a premium to be punished.- - Ron Sirak

Jeffrey Stein

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Re: Building Old Macdonald's Strath Bunker
« Reply #23 on: March 24, 2010, 05:41:41 PM »
Marty,

Thanks for the input.  Not sure what you mean by taking the revetment further "back" around the sides and/or rear?  Do you mean to have a smaller entrance into the bunker?

While laying the sod we did eventually get to a point where we thought the surrounds would flow best into the top layer of sod.  This of course took much fine tuning and as I said a bit of backfilling.  As we were working in sand, the original boundaries of the pit lose a lot around the edges as you work around it from day to day.  My intention was always to work within the parameters of the surrounding grades laid out ahead of us by the RGD crew and minimize any rippling effect of raising the edges of the bunkers (thus creating an artificial looking lip).

Kevin:  This was my first revetment and I have not been in the business long enough to have seen a re-do on one particular course.  But I have heard the need to revet comes along every 3-5 years.

I hope plenty of you GCA'ers get a chance to try a shot out the Strath this June.
Jeff
I love the smell of hydroseed in the morning.
www.steingolf.com

Kevin Pallier

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Re: Building Old Macdonald's Strath Bunker
« Reply #24 on: March 24, 2010, 06:30:56 PM »
Cheers Jeffrey for the information

Having now seen the process - I certainly appreciate the final product moreso now.

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