I am always interested to see the comments and suggestions that people put forward. While we get many compliments on the course, it is the negative comments or complaints that really interest me. While I find some of them humorous, and others just nonsensical, I focus on the better ones and use them as a form of constructive criticism; where can we get better?
Through this survey we have come to a few conclusions:
1) People think my name is Trevor.
2) The bunkers need more sand and should be consistent.
3) The bunkers need more sand and should be consistent.
4) The bunkers need more sand and should be consistent.
Yes, we had an overwhelming response that our bunkers need some work.
If you talk to any Superintendent and ask them what the biggest complaint on the course is, they will tell you, BUNKERS. Bunkers are the most scrutinized aspect of any golf course anywhere. However, try to remember that bunkers are a HAZARD.
Old Tom Morris once said: "Bunkers are not meant to be places of pleasure, they are prisons for punishment and repentance."
Please understand that we are trying to do the best we can with what we have. We are aware, especially after the survey, that we will need to do some more extensive work moving sand in most bunkers and adding sand to about 2 or 3 bunkers that need additions.
Consistency is a whole other issue. As Superintendents, we have to work with and against mother nature. Rain events, irrigation volume, different subsoils, shape of bunkers, slopes of bunker faces, amount of play, and limited staff all combine to make consistency in bunkers virtually impossible. While we try our best to achieve this, it is just not a realistic expectation.
Yesterday I personally spent 8 hours moving sand and "fluffing up" the bunkers. Not to toot my own horn, but we simply do not have enough time or resources to spend on bunkers for 8 hours every day.
This might help put the scope of things in perspective for you:
The average yard size in Canada is 6000 sq feet, or .13 acres.
Our golf course is 126 acres including 3 acres of highly maintained greens, 25 acres of moderately maintained fairways and tees, 3.5 acres of bunkers, an unmeasured amount of rough and approximately 750 trees.
You maintain your yard, and it probably looks pretty good. That's 1 person for .13 acres (on average)
We have 7 staff plus myself (superintendent) and an assistant superintendent, (9 people)
This equates to 14 acres per person (on average) including 2 greens per person and 83 trees per person.
Yes we have a lot to take care of! Not to mention trying to work around golfers and dealing with weather events that always seem to happen right before a big tournament. Murphy's law seems to laugh in the face of golf course maintenance.
Anyway, I seem to have gone a bit off topic here. We have taken many of the suggestions into consideration and have already implemented some of the smaller details. It is our goal to provide you with the best bunker conditions possible. We are also changing the way we rake bunkers, hopefully helping to keep the sand away from the edges and in the middle where the majority of golf balls end up.
Here are a few links to short bunker related videos I would recommend checking out:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L_ZzffW2fbk
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-LAqF62GpRs&list=PLnU5qUEfww3cOAU8iTQTUpF5S4UqhXJka&index=5
We also completed our fall greens aeration last week. The greens have already fully healed 8 days later and we are in the process of lowing the cutting heights to bring the greens speed back to where we had them, and are getting close already! In case you missed the informative video we made and posted to Facebook and Twitter, I will post a link to it here:
Aeration informative video
Thanks again for everyone who took the time to complete the member survey, we gained some very valuable information which will help us in continuing to improve the conditions we provide for you.
