La Cumbre Bunker Renovation Process

The following set of photos takes you through the process we used to renovate the bunkers. It can't be stated enough how incredible it's been to watch Wayne Mills and crew work, especially as we've refined the process. Holes were never closed for more than a few hours at a time, so if they didn't want to take a complimentary par, at the worst golfers had to come back and play a closed hole to post their 18-hoel score.

Because we were working with existing bunkers, the process generally went something like this. Though some of the larger bunkers that we were resizing took longer, while others revealed new problems as soon as sand and sod were removed.

Here we go...the captions describe the photos below each.

Below, we sand removed and lines painted in orange to outline new bunker shapes and boundaries. The orange also is easier to see from a distance.

 

Depending on the bunker, dirt might have to be added to fill in areas no longer deemed necessary or to create shapes currently lacking. In this instance, three bunkers were being turned into two hazards and a few bays added to spice things up.

 

If shapes had to be added where there were none, Felix and the boys did whatever was necessary to get the job done, including using this compactor-rope concoction.

 

After various repairs and modifications are made to the shape of the bunker, the final shape is painted by the architect and crafted by shovel work.

 

The final shape is determined in the dirt so that it will be hard to lose bunker shapes with edging and exploding sand.

 

Wayne Mills cutting in a shelf for sod stacking after the final outline has been determined. This was the first bunker we built and you'll note the sand and drainage complete, something we now do as the final step in order to avoid sand contamination and to have more room to work.

 

Felix laying the stacked sod installed to give the bunkers a little more of that evolved and 3-d look.

 

A close up of the shelf created to stack layers of sod. The number of strips of sod vary depending on the mood of the architect, the crew and the superintendent! We have no formula, just to make sure to vary it enough so that you do not have a polished, perfect bunker edge.

 

The sod stacking viewed up close.

 

Drainage is generally installed before sodding, but lately we've altered it to sod and only leave a small opening to finish drainage and sand installation since the edge shapes were getting destroyed by the process of sand/drainage installation.

 

Kikuyu sod is in, and stacking is evident. In just a few days the stacked shelves disappear and look like thick bunker lips that have been around for decades.