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Tommy Williamsen

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Maintaining bunkers
« on: May 16, 2021, 11:46:20 AM »
I do like the look of renovated bunkers. Yet, I wonder about maintaining them. It must take a lot of work hours to edge the new bunkers. Any estimates of time needed verses bunkers with straighter edges?


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Mark_Fine

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Re: Maintaining bunkers
« Reply #1 on: May 16, 2021, 01:01:05 PM »
Nice photo Tommy.  Not sure that course pictured cares what it cost to maintain those bunkers/edges or they wouldn’t have allowed the architect to build so many that look like that in the first place. 


Obviously those bunkers all require extensive hand raking (they are huge as well) so they are very labor intensive.  Much of the difference in cost is a function of your labor rates.  Mowing and edging requires more labor as well.  I have heard numbers all across the map but as you would expect it is a significant difference.  If the bunkers are properly designed with good internal drainage and with minimal water from surface drainage running into the bunkers that will help a lot.  If the rest of the holes look like that, plan on hundreds of thousands of dollars just to take care of those bunkers every year.  Any wonder why courses where cost is an issue are reducing the number of bunkers to those that are most important and eliminating the ones that are superfluous or just eye candy. 

Mike Nuzzo

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Re: Maintaining bunkers
« Reply #2 on: May 16, 2021, 01:34:37 PM »
Tommy
Hard to say which is more.

Some straighter-edged bunkers require significant detail work to keep the lip thickness consistent and the straight clean appearance.
Mahaffey would sometimes/often chemically treat the edges, and let them get a little rugged.
Specific practices, construction techniques (lip & liner) can be more impactful than design.
Peace
Thinking of Bob, Rihc, Bill, George, Neil, Dr. Childs, & Tiger.

Mark_Fine

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Re: Maintaining bunkers
« Reply #3 on: May 16, 2021, 01:56:35 PM »
Mike,
Maybe if you are maintaining them like Augusta National but not on most courses. 


Again the answer to this question is sooo course to course dependent but clearly those bunkers that Tommy pictured are expensive to maintain (or at least they can be if you don’t just let them go).  I know courses that hand rake bunkers every day and others once a week (maybe). 

Tom Bacsanyi

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Re: Maintaining bunkers
« Reply #4 on: May 16, 2021, 03:33:54 PM »
It isn't just about raking, edging, hand weeding (grass and other things will try to grow in every square inch of that bunker, not just the edges), checking depths, adding/subtracting sand, animal footprints, golfer footprints, fixing washouts, pumping them out after rain events, arranging rakes, etc.


The faces of bunkers are also a huge pain, as they are a frequent dandelion/weed hotspot, their pitch often necessitates increased irrigation via additional pop-up zones which require constant checking and adjustment. Additional fertilizer must be applied with a walk spreader or by hand, as the sand splashed growing environment is nutrient poor. Burrowing animals love bunker faces, and like to dig native soil out into the bunker where they make their homes. So you need to literally sprinkle edible poison such as oat bait on the bunker faces with burrowing animal activity. Any steep faces need to be flymowed, which is a very labor intensive process (not to mention dangerous), and then the clippings need to be blown out of the bunker before raking.


Furthermore, the presence of bunkers affects other general maintenance practices too. The more bunkers you have the more elaborate your rough mowing scheme must be. The big rough mower has to join up with the smaller rough mower which has to join up with the walk mower, string trimmer, fly mower, etc. Similarly, the proximity to greens can influence whether a green can be sprayed with a riding boom sprayer or a walking spray hawk. Spray hawking will double to quadruple your labor cost for that particular operation.


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Don't play too much golf. Two rounds a day are plenty.

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