Decision Time - Selecting the Right Bunker Liner

360 Golf, Inc. has now started the initial stages of a extensive bunker renovation at the Pine Hollow Country Club located on the North Shore of Long Island in East Norwich, NY.  Our crews have been working through the extreme cold weather excavating the existing bunker sand stockpiling it for future use.

Excavation of Bunker Sand - Hole # 10 Green Complex - Pine Hollow CC

The club's representatives have retained John Harvey of A. John Harvey Golf Design to oversee the design aspects of the renovation.  The goal of this project is to restore this William Michell / (R) Gil Hanse design by keeping all original design intents and just tweaking some of the bunker horizon lines.  Our process will include the re-edging of bunkers, the installation of interior and exterior bunker drainage, the installation of a bunker liner system, the renovation of existing tee surfaces, and the addition of new tee complexes on 4-5 holes in late 2013.

John Harvey of A. John Harvey Golf Design marking out new bunker edges at Pine Hollow CC - East Norwich, NY

Hole #9 FWY Bunkers ready for re-edging

At this stage of the project we are awaiting the Club's decision as to what type of bunker liner should be installed.  This process of researching every option on the market has created a short list of two bunker liner selections.   The first option is to utilize a grass liner system.  USGA's David Oatis and the Club's Superintendent, Gerry Kunckle, have found that the use of a grass liner system has been the most successful in Pine Hollow's sandy / gravelly / stony loam environment. The second option is to utilize synthetic liner system.   John Harvey has found the synthetic liner by SandMat with the installation of Trident Stakes has been the most effective in his experiences in the New York Metropolitan  Area.  A hybrid approach might also be taken in consideriation which would be the use of a synthetic bunker liner on steep faces and grass liners in the bottom of the bunkers.  The decision will be made within the next week on how to proceed with the project.

We will be continuing the bunker renovation through this winter and spring at Pine Hollow CC and will update in future posts the final bunker liner decision, the installation process and completed pictures.  In the meantime, please feel free to contribute your experiences, recommendations, or issues with various liner systems to chad@360golfonline.com.