Poke your head around the door of any clubhouse andit’slikelyyou’llhear golferschattingabout bunkers.Only the greens are likely to shape more debate.
Whetherit’schuntering about‘consistency’,or marvelling overrenovated bunkers after a busy winter,we’reequally fascinated and fearful of the sand.
But what do you really know about bunkers? You mighthear the pleas of a greenkeeping team urgingyouto rake them, but have you ever considered what it takes tomaintainthese hazardsandkeep them at the standardsgolf courses aspire towards?
What’sgoing to happen in the future? We know resources are gettingscarcerand the cost-of-living crisisremainsvery real.Bunkers have been around since the dawn of the game, but can theyremain a central part of the golfingexperiencein a world of rising inflation?
We put some these issues to esteemed golf course architect Jonathan Gaunt and started with the key question…
Are bunkers still an important part of golf course design?
Every single client says, whenwe’retalking about an assessment, that bunkers are among the top two or three priority elements on a golf course. Every single golf club I advise is a golf course with sand bunkers.
I’mcurrentlyadvising The Club Company. Theyhave got18 golf courses andwe’reonto our eighthproject with them. Our brief at every single golf course has been to reduce sand areas down and reduce the number of bunkers.
Why? Becauseit’san imbalance in terms of time spent and the cost associated with those features.
When you go to a golf course where the bunkers are in the right place, andthey’renot toonumerous, you can understand why they are there. But within our business, we aredefinitely recommendingfewer bunkers per 18 holes than we ever did previously.
That’sbeena big changeover the last 15 years?
Size of sand areas is one of the drivers behind that. When I first started in this industry back in the 90s, it wasa very differentanimal. I was only designing new golf courses. Ididn’tdo any bunker remodelling untilI’dbeen in the industry for about 10 years.
In the early 2000s, bunker remodelling started to fill out our order books. The bunker areas were significantly bigger. That was because youdidn’tput liners in them, so youdidn’thave thatadditionalcost, which could (now) be £50 a square metre on top. Youweren’tpaying £65 a tonne for bunker sand – you wereprobably payingless than £10. It wasreally affordable.
We built a course in Reading back in 1995 and some of the bunkers were 350 to 400 square metres – as big as a green.
We’vegot a simple formula we use nowadays. Fairway bunkers aregenerally somewherebetween 65 and 75 square metres. Approach bunkers areprobably 40to 55 and greenside bunkers are somewhere between 25 to 40.
As you get closer to the greens, the bunkers are getting smaller. There is a reason for that. The bigger the bunker, the longer the shot you can play from it. The smaller the bunker, the more you are being asked to play a wedge or a sand iron. So, as you get close to the green, you put pressure on the club choice.
Nowwe’retalking about smaller bunker areas, using less sand, and none of my clients today would ever contemplate having bunkers installed without a liner material. Nowadays,you’relooking at a big cost just to renovate one bunker and ifyou’vegot 40 bunkers you can spend £450,000 to £500,000 on a project like that.There’snot manygolf clubs that can afford to do it.
Do you design with longevity in mind?
It’sreally importantand there has been talk about a rollback. The interesting thing about the positioning of bunkers now – especially fairway bunkers – is that in 2026we’reusing a measurement of 240 metres from the back tee to the landing/turning point on the fairway.
Back in 1990, when I first started, it was 210 metres. The difference is golfers, even thoughthey’reolder and less able, can still hit it about 260 yards.
If you go to York (Strensall), some of the bunkers we put in there five years ago were at 275 yards off the back tee. I would say five years from now, some of those bunkers willprobably requirea rethink.Sowhen you spend £10,000 on a bunker, ithas tobe well positioned.
Whenyou’retasked with a bunker project, are you designing with greenkeepers in mind?
For every project, we work with the course manager. Westate that our course assessments will be carried out with the course manager and greenkeepers present because we know when we make proposalsit’sgoing to directly impact whatthey’regoing to be doing in the future.
Whenwe’vegot a masterplan agreed, we always get them to review ourplanssothey’vegot an idea of howit’sgoing toimpactmowing regimes.
Onceyou’vegot a bunker in position,you’vegot to design the fairway to maximise the use of that bunker.I’mnot a great believer in having big swathes of semi-rough around bunkers. I like fairways to run into bunkers. That has an impact upon the time the greenkeepers spend mowing fairways. It has an impact upon the time they spend mowing bunker banks and surrounds.
We propose slope angles around the bunker edges of about 25%. Inside the bunkers, slope angles arereally important. When you see these disaster movies showing bunkers washed out after extreme rain events,it’sbecause the internal slope angle where the sand sitsisjust too steep.
Ifyou’re using a lining material with a good qualitysand, you need to make sure that slope angle is no more than 28 degrees.
That guarantees the sand should remain and will stay on the slope, even after biblical rainfall. Whenwe’reworking with shapers andcontractorswe always get the greenkeepers out there – and not just the course manager – to seewhat’sgoing on, sothey’vegot the chance to say, ‘we’re not quite happy about this’.
Often the greenkeeping team will come in and finish off the project and that helps with affordability, because if you employ a contractor to do everything from start to finishit’sa substantial amount of money.
How is climate change affecting the work you do with bunkers?
It’sreally important. With greenside and approach bunkers, we often end up adding sprinkler heads sowe’rekeeping the turf around the bunkers adequately irrigated.
We work a lot of golf clubs whodon’thave approach sprinklers – just greenside – and some don’t even have sprinklers on their tees.
It’sastonishing to me so many golf clubs in this country have been so behind in updating their infrastructure to deal with climate change. Thankfully, more clubs nowadays are asking us to get involved in rainwater harvesting, irrigation storage lakes, collecting water, storing water, and trying to get off being committed to using mains water.
We’vebeen taking quite a lot of greenside bunkers out of play [at clubs] and replacing them with runoffs and grassy hollows. These still need maintenance but if you can leave semi-rough in themthat’san area youwouldn’tnecessarily need intensive irrigation.
Generally, we’vealso been asked to take about probably 70% of rear left, right, and rear bunkers so you just have bunkers front left or front right. That meansyou’retaking bunkers out of play, butyou’resaving money in terms of maintenance.You’renot buying sand, andyou’remaintainingthose areas ina different way.
What we recommended with fairway bunkers isthere’sa fairway hydrant within 25 to 30 metres of that bunker. Onceit’sestablished, it should be able to look after itself.
What’sthe future for bunkers?
The cost of living is going to hit much harder over the next few years. Golf clubs are going to continue to be challenged andhave tocompete more against non-traditional golfing facilities.We’redoing smaller facilities with driving ranges, short game areas, high-tech driving ranges.It’sentire family, cradle to grave, golf, par 3 golf, nine and 12-hole courses.
What can you do to reduce your costs? Ifyou’vegot 80 bunkers on your golf course andthat’staking up 30% of your maintenance costs,you’vegot to start to think about reducing those bunkers down in number and size.
About Jonathan Gaunt
A Senior Member of the European Institute of Golf Course Architects, Jonathan hasadvisedmore than 220 courses across the world and built more than 40 throughout Europe,Africaand North America.
This article appears in Your Course, from the British and International Golf Greenkeepers Association. Your Course invites golfers to gain a deeper appreciation of what preparing and maintaining a golf course really involves. Head towww.bigga.org.ukto find out more.
Now have your say
What do you think? Do bunkers still play an important role on the golf course, or is their influence likely to dwindle because of cost, climate and time pressures on staff? Let me know by leaving a comment below, or get in touch on X.
