The Richmond’s bunker renovation project nears completion

By Alistair August 18, 2021 07:54 Updated

The Richmond Golf Club, one of the UK’s leading parkland courses, is nearing completion of a multiphase bunker renovation project that has seen it partner with Durabunker to install the company’s patented synthetic bunker edging system.

Master Greenkeeper and former BIGGA chairman, Les Howkins, has led his team through an ‘in-house’ project with the ultimate aim to edge all bunkers with Durabunker. Les commented: “I spoke with Rhydian Lewis, the founder of Durabunker, and agreed that it would be wise to have Durabunker staff lead the first phase of the project, working with our team to introduce the product to the club, which proved a very valuable exercise.

“Our bunkers have fairly intricate shapes, and were proving difficult to maintain to the standard myself and our members expected. Degradation of the bunker edges began to have an impact on the visual quality of the bunkers and also contaminate our sand. We wanted to safeguard the outstanding design work carried out through Lobb and Partners and having discovered the benefits of Durabunker’s synthetic edging, and witnessing how natural it looked, investing in the long term future of our bunkers, wasn’t a difficult decision to make.”

The work at Richmond has continued through this year and is planned to complete in winter 2022/23, replicating the multiphase model many Durabunker clients have followed.

Rhydian Lewis, co-inventor of all design patents associated with the product, added: “The original bunker renovation utilised a nine inch turf revetment to seal the rubber crumb liner being used and define bunker edges. However, the finite life cycle of natural turf meant that within four years, bunker edges at Richmond had deteriorated quite significantly. Durabunker is a complete game changer in that respect, saving many hours of maintenance, eradicating sand contamination from failing bunker edges, as well as locking in the world class bunker design carried out by Lobb and Partners, for many decades to come.”