We have this week visited Gleneagles getting the expert thoughts, advice and opinions of Scott Fenwick Director of Golf Courses and Estates and Craig Haldane, Golf Courses Manager. We also visited the Castle course at St. Andrews to get similar advice and guidance from Sandy Reid, Director of Green keeping for the Links Trust and John Scott, Course Manager. This along with Bruntsfield Links, meeting C.E.O Dougie Cleeton. These are some of the best, most highly qualified people in our country. Even they were finding it difficult to come to a consensus on the sand! We trialled sand on the P.G.A course, the Kings Course at Gleneagles and also the Castle Course at St. Andrews and Bruntsfield Links, Edinburgh. Three of the four with different sands!

Paul Kimber and Niall Glen have been brilliant during the process of finding the right sand. They have helped us greatly with their industry contacts and knowledge. They have given great input throughout and have been a driving force behind our final decision-making process. 

The good news - we have narrowed it down to three sands and a decision will follow fairly soon. Things that we were aware of, however, have been highlighted further during our meetings were the following:

1. Base liners are key - And we have the best one on the market. The Bunker Blinder will promote a much-improved playing consistency of the sand.
2. A good well-draining course is key.
3. The type of rake (new ones coming) is very important with minimal teeth.
4. Avoid overraking bunkers to avoid sand disturbance. Perhaps even a member's raking clinic to ensure the keen ones understand how to rake the bunkers effectively and correctly.
5. The sand type spec to match the base is key.
6. Watering the sand to help compact it especially in the early few months to minimise air pockets in the sands is important.
7. Avoiding any soil infiltration into the sand by grass facing and not showing revetted turf.
8. Compacting the sand on entry with a packer to help remove air pockets.
9. Whatever sand is decided upon will take several months to settle anyway and will require people to not form opinions to early in the season. Dougie Cleeton C.E.O at Bruntsfield Links has explained that the sand really only started to perform as they expected after about 4/5 months!
10. Don`t put the sand in too early. Paul Kimber (main contractor) has been adamant that we can`t put the sand in too early as the good turfing works could easily be ruined. We will phase this approach with the bunkers turfed first being the ones to get the new sand in first.
11. Ensure the sand that’s going to be used is compatible with the top dressing sand. This ensures no capping takes place and soil acidity levels work to support good grass growth on greens and bunker surrounds where there is sand splash.
12. Ensuring the sand spec is quality bunker sand and compliments the likely rainfall patterns/statistics of the area. This has been done by sending the sands to ETL, ONE of only TEN LABORATORIES in the world on the USGA approved list of physical soil testing. ETL is based in Alloa.
13. Sand colour should be close to the last consideration and getting the correct sand is paramount - Way ahead of colour in the pecking order.
14. Use a quarry that has a long-lasting supply guaranteed.
15. Use a quarry that is good with its consistencies of sand from one year to the next for refilling purposes. Testing on every 100 ton is paramount to assure consistency.
16. Ensure the sand spec is noted at the start of this process and refill sands match the existing spec in the Course Policy Document. Our three preferred sands are away being tested at ETL in Alloa currently to ensure they meet with the correct detailed specification.
17. Sand depths are key in bases and on faces. Getting the correct depth will be a learning process as we go, then it will be about establishing the correct consistency of depth once we are happy we have the right depths. According to the boys at St. Andrews, this can take most of one playing season to figure out!
18. Trial various sands at the home course to give the best indication of suitability, playability and consistency.

The above is my lay-mans basic guide to ensuring we have the best playing bunkers possible.

There is much, much more I`ve not detailed down above. However, what it hopefully does is give an indication into some of the depth that we have gone to get this decision correct for our membership. As we have noted before we hope to have some bunkers in play around the end of March and start of April. Rushing the process now to fill bunkers too early with a view to the start of the playing season is the biggest mistake we can make. We have to let the newly laid turf knit together and hope the roots take hold early. A couple of extra week’s patience now will reap huge rewards in the long run.