Royal Norwich Golf Club delighted with Capillary Concrete bunkers

By Alistair January 19, 2021 07:02 Updated

In the summer of 2019 the completion of the new Royal Norwich GC at Weston Park was drawing close, one of the final pieces was the installation of Capillary Concrete Bunker Liner to all 59 bunkers, this was carried out by an in-house team and local contractor GSD Lambert & Sons. The total area of 4000m² was installed in just 13 days.

Now, after being open for 14 months, Peter Todd – estates manager / director has given an update on his impressions so far.

“The results were evident from the opening day of the new course,” explains Todd, “bunkers are a daily drain on labour resources for all courses, with having Capillary bunkers we have had a significant improvement to our operational efficiency and to the playing experience for our members and guests,” he continues.

The club chose Capillary Concrete after careful consideration and evaluation.

“When we planned this project, we knew the soils in this area had small stones in it and the old Royal Norwich site always had a reputation for stones in its bunkers. In fact, we could see the stones clearly as soon as we started construction, so it was obvious we would need a good liner for our bunkers,” said Todd.

Even in this short period of time the club can see it will have a much lower requirement for replenishing sand as it will be limited to the amount of sand chipped out onto grass and not for any other reason such as contamination.

After heavy downpours of rain it has been noticed that there are minimal washouts that can be quickly repaired, previously it would be hours of work to repair.