What’s my liner?

I’m a lifelong turfhead and currently the golf course superintendent at Heritage Hills Golf Resort in York, Pennsylvania. I started in golf course maintenance as a 14-year-old when my best friend’s father bought the local golf course. I loved the peace and quiet of the golf course. I loved being there as the sun rose in the morning and I loved being there as the sun set in the evening. I knew at an early age it is where I wanted to be.

I spent a great deal of my career building and renovating golf courses as a project manager up and down the East Coast and through to the Carolinas. I worked on every type of golf course with every type of budget. I worked with some of the best architects in the world, and on other projects that were designed in the field.

One question every project has in common is, “What bunker liner are we going to use?” or, even more common, “What bunker liner can we afford to use?” Throughout my career I have worked with all types of liners. There are some great products out there, including poured in place, sprayed polymer and stapled fabric options. They all work wonderfully but can be cost prohibitive or require a certified crew to install. Some of the fabric liners require staples that can heave upward in freeze and thaw cycles; some fabric becomes snagged by the bunker rake.

I’ve taken all that I have learned over the years and considered several materials to develop my own bunker liner company. I wanted the liner to be durable, I wanted it to be easy to install and, most important, I wanted it to be budget friendly.

In some situations, the cost of bunker liners is driving design. Architects are having to scale back the size of bunkers because of the square-foot-price of construction. The multi-step installation of some liners is part of the issue. It’s not necessarily the cost of the material, but the cost of labor and equipment used to install it.

There are also conditions to consider before liners are installed: Can the equipment be driven out on the course without causing damage? Can these heavy materials be transported out to the bunker without causing damage to the course or the cart path? Can the polymer be used in this weather or is the stone too wet? Can the plant deliver consistent loads of concrete? Is the concrete too wet or dry? Do loads need to be rejected for being too wet or dry? Can staples be hammered into the rocky subsoil? Will the fabric get snagged by the bunker rake?

Then there is the question of injury and liability. Putting a solid rock surface under 4 or 6 inches of sand sounds good because no one is taking a 6-inch divot playing out of a sand bunker, right? That’s right, but that sand is going to migrate in the bunker if it rains or if a worker inadvertently pulled it down off the face because they didn’t take the time to push sand back up on the faces. Now that 6 inches of sand is 1 inch, and that member or patron could hurt themself.

I had an opportunity several years ago to renovate bunkers on our course. It was a project done completely in-house. It was the perfect time to test my own bunker liner idea. I contacted the manufacturer, and they loved it. They produce this product for another purpose and were thrilled to introduce it to a new market. They are an international company 10 miles from me with the ability to ship all over the country. It’s easily installed in-house or by a contractor — simply measure, cut and place.

This is something I started this past August and I’m excited about how it can help others. I have used my golf course maintenance and construction skills to help fill a void between the expensive bunker liners many of you dream about using and the cheaper liners your budget dictates you use.

Developing a solution to help my peers has been rewarding. I encourage you to use your vast skills and creativity to help courses overcome maintenance and budget challenges.

Richard Green is the superintendent at Heritage Hills Golf Resort in York, Pennsylvania, and developer of Performance Bunker Liner. This is his first Turfheads Take Over contribution.