I agree with Joe. Sourcing materials locally should always be a top priority and often results in a big environmental benefit and savings. I find some designers/builders have their list of materials they are comfortable with and prefer not to innovate. An owner that is truly worried about sustainability and costs should always ask the right questions, and sourcing of sand should be at the top of that list.
In our case, we were hoping to use volcanic sand througout the course, since we could source it within the property or from a quarry less than 2 kilometers from the course. We were looking forward to dark bunker sand. Once we had it tested, we were fortunate enough to find it to be excellent greens mix for our bent grass greens. However, once we started shaping greens, we found the sand flew away very easily. In fact, we had to irrigate greens much more often that normal for 3 weeks and maintained them covered for 3-5 weeks. We were finding sand and 2 week old bent grass was flying away. See below the sand color and greens being covered after seeding.
We should have suspected this to be the case when 2 years earlier a nearby volcano erupted (a 1 in 400 year event), blanketing the property in 2 inches of sand. Less than a year after most of the sand had cleared or incorporated in the soil. During the eruption, homes and cars in Buenos Aires, 1000 miles away were covered in fine sand, and airports closed thoughout the country. Sand was found flying around half a world away.
Every source of sand in the region had the same trouble, plus a horrible fried egg test. We ended up having to truck sand from 260 miles away, the closest source we could find of coarse sand that would not fly in our windy conditions. Transportation ends up being 80% of the cost. We ended up filling bunkers 2 weeks ago with whiter sand than we hoped for, however it should get darker with time. See below.
