Architect Harrison Minchew working with former Tour pro Fred Funk in north Colorado.

WINDSOR, COLORADO, JULY 23, 2021 –  The new RainDance National golf course in Windsor, Colorado, should be finished this year and will open in July 2022. Part of a substantial housing development, the course, which is being designed by architect Harrison Minchew, along with former PGA Tour pro Fred Funk, is using Capillary Bunkers lining technology.

“I did a course with Ed Seay back in 1985, and I remember the contractor saying to me ‘You know, one day we’re going to put concrete in the bunkers to make them work better,” says Minchew. “Well, for me, that day has come.”

Originally announced back in 2014, the start of the RainDance build was delayed until last September, to allow developer Martin Lind to progress the associated residential community. Sales have been very strong, allowing the course to start last year. “I am running the job and am here 24/7,” says Minchew. “To get it all done this year is a really tight schedule, though we already haveRAINC around two thirds of the course seeded.”

Minchew first used the Capillary Bunkers product on a six hole First Tee course in Augusta. “Landscapes Unlimited were building that project, and wanted to install Capillary Bunkers,” he says. “That enabled me to see how effective the product was – I saw the water basically going straight through the bunkers – and I came to understand how it works, and to realise that it could be installed in conditions that would be impossible for competing products. So when it came to this job, I knew I wanted to use Capillary Bunkers.”

Minchew says that the golf course build, and all seeding, will be finished this year, despite an extremely wet spring. “We will have a total of about 75,000 square feet of Capillary Bunkers,” he says. “Capillary Bunkers’ Scott Grego has been working closely with us – he came in while we were installing the first few bunkers to make sure we were doing it correctly.”

ENDS

NOTES TO EDITORS

1. At the core of our solution, Capillary Bunkers is a patented and engineered polymer-based concrete. It is the only building material that can rapidly drain water while also moving water up. Capillary Bunkers’ cutting-edge, patented technology helps you control water in any climate, season, and soil type, providing better, more consistent playing experiences while reducing costs. http://www.capillaryconcrete.com

2. Capillary Bunkers is recognized as the world’s leading and most advanced bunker liner, and the most durable bunker construction method. It allows water to flow through the base of the bunker while keeping sand on the faces and preventing washouts, keeping bunkers in perfect shape during any weather condition. Over 800 courses around the world have built or renovated their bunkers with Capillary Concrete, including dozens of golf’s top 100 courses.

3. Photography to support this release can be downloaded from this Dropbox link.

Issued by Adam Lawrence, Oxford Golf Consulting

adam@oxfordgolfconsulting.com, tel +44 (0)7971 754649.

Big Canoe GC in the mountains of Georgia, has deployed Capillary Bunkers to solve the problems caused by water getting into its bunkers.

JASPER, GEORGIA, 12 NOVEMBER 2021 — Mountain golf is generally picturesque and can offer some of the most interesting courses in the world, but the nature of mountain environments means that climatic conditions are often extreme.

Such is the case at the 27 hole, Joe Lee-designed Big Canoe GC in the north Georgia mountains. “We get a lot of rain, over 70 inches a year, so soil erosion is a big problem for us, and bunker erosion is a major part of that,” says superintendent Lydell Mack. “Water control and drainage are very high on our priority list.”

Big Canoe partnered with golf architect Bill Bergin to do a long-term course masterplan back in 2018, and dealing with the course’s bunkers was a key component of the plan. “Previously, we had steep sand-faced bunkers – not massive, but still large enough to be a significant maintenance issue for us,” says Mack. Bergin and the club both agreed that a high-quality bunker liner was necessary, and that the Capillary Bunker system was the right choice.

The club chose to execute the bunker work on its Creek nine in 2021, hiring Tennessee-based contractor Sanders Golf to handle construction. “Sanders have installed Capillary Bunkers in the past and were very familiar with it, so the build went very smoothly,” says Mack. “It took eight working days to rebuild sixteen bunkers, improving external drainage and changing the bunkers to grass faces as well as installing the liner. The other two nines will be completed in the next five years – in 2023 and 2025. And, of course, they will be Capillary bunkers too!”

Although it is early days for Big Canoe’s new bunkers, Mack reports excellent results already. “We’ve had two tropical storms come across us with four or five inch rainfalls associated with them,” he says. “One morning, after one of those storms, I was giving a course tour of the redone nine to some members. We stood on the first, which was done, and looked at the ninth, which wasn’t. The non-upgraded bunkers were completely destroyed, totally washed out, while the new ones were not washed out at all. We maintain 27 holes with sixteen guys – a small crew for a large facility, so anywhere we can save labour is a big help for us. We can provide a better product for our members as a result.”
 

ENDS

NOTES TO EDITORS

1. At the core of our solution, Capillary Bunkers is a patented and engineered polymer-based concrete. It is the only building material that can rapidly drain water while also moving water up. Capillary Bunkers’ cutting-edge, patented technology helps you control water in any climate, season, and soil type, providing better, more consistent playing experiences while reducing costs. http://www.capillaryconcrete.com

2. Capillary Bunkers is recognized as the world’s leading and most advanced bunker liner, and the most durable bunker construction method. It allows water to flow through the base of the bunker while keeping sand on the faces and preventing washouts, keeping bunkers in perfect shape during any weather condition. Over 800 courses around the world have built or renovated their bunkers with Capillary Concrete, including dozens of golf’s top 100 courses.

3. Photography to support this release can be downloaded from this Dropbox link.

Issued by Adam Lawrence, Oxford Golf Consulting

adam@oxfordgolfconsulting.com, tel +44 (0)7971 754649.

In the wettest place in the continental United States, The Preserve’s Capillary Bunkers are still performing well, seven years after they were built.

VANCLEAVE, MISSISSIPPI, DECEMBER 6 2021 – For almost any product, there is an environment that provides its toughest test. If you’re making extreme winter clothing, and you get asked to supply your gear to McMurdo Station, the largest settlement in Antarctica, you’ll know it is going to get the best possible test. Similarly if you sell bunker liners and you get asked to supply The Preserve GC, in Vancleave in southern Missssippi.

Designed by Jerry Pate and opened in 2005, The Preserve is attached to the Palace Casino Resort in nearby Biloxi. According to director of operations Stephen Miles, the course does 13,000 rounds in an average year, though the post-Covid golf boom means 2021 has been significantly busier. And, let us not beat about the bush: this part of the Gulf coast is the wettest location in the whole of the continental United States, averaging almost 70 inches (1780mm) of rain a year. And 2021 has been wetter still than that: club meteorlogist Jeremy Steven reports that the figure for this year is very close to 100 inches (2,540mm).

Fortunately for Miles and his team, back in 2014, The Preserve chose to rebuild its bunkers and line them with Capillary Bunkers technology. “Nine years after opening is not a long time to have to renovate, but the infrastructure in the original build of the course was simply not up to coping with our weather,” he says. “The bunkers were originally lined with fabric, but it was wearing out, and we needed a more resilient solution. I knew that concrete had the tendency to get stronger over time, and Capillary Bunkers was less restrictive in the conditions needed for installation than its closest rival. I was confident at the time that we had made the right choice and installed a product that would stand the test of time. And time has proved we made the right choice!”

“We have not had to repair our bunkers at all, and, incredibly, the original sand is still in them,” Miles says. “Since 2014, I have bought one truckload of sand, and that was for the bunker in our chipping green – which gets blasted out by players. Our bunkers have flashed sand faces, but our minimal washout issues only occur where water actually flows into the bunkers. When we get a big rain – and eight to ten inches of rain is not uncommon – we have to wait for the drainage infrastructure underneath the bunkers to catch up with the bunkers’ ability to move water. But it always does, and then the crew can prepare the bunkers for play again.”

ENDS

NOTES TO EDITORS

1. At the core of our solution, Capillary Bunkers is a patented and engineered polymer-based concrete. It is the only building material that can rapidly drain water while also moving water up. Capillary Bunkers’ cutting-edge, patented technology helps you control water in any climate, season, and soil type, providing better, more consistent playing experiences while reducing costs. http://www.capillaryconcrete.com

2. Capillary Bunkers is recognized as the world’s leading and most advanced bunker liner, and the most durable bunker construction method. It allows water to flow through the base of the bunker while keeping sand on the faces and preventing washouts, keeping bunkers in perfect shape during any weather condition. Over 800 courses around the world have built or renovated their bunkers with Capillary Concrete, including dozens of golf’s top 100 courses.

3. Photography to support this release can be downloaded from this Dropbox link and should be credited to Stephen Miles/The Preserve GC.

Issued by Adam Lawrence, Oxford Golf Consulting

adam@oxfordgolfconsulting.com, tel +44 (0)7971 754649.

Environmental concerns see Capillary Bunkers chosen as liner at Cologne course.

COLOGNE, GERMANY, DECEMBER 8, 2021 – Germany’s largest Capillary Bunkers installation so far has just been completed at the Marienburger Golf Club in Cologne, by architect Christian Althaus and contractor Sommerfeld.

Founded as Cologne Golf Club in 1906, the club moved to its current site in Marienburg in 1909. The construction of an autobahn (motorway) to Aachen in the thirties saw the course reduced to nine holes, which it has remained ever since. The club called in architect Althaus to advise on course improvements several years ago, and in 2021, the upgrade project got underway, incoporating the reconstruction of all nine greens – which were not properly drained – as well as bunkers, and the regrading of fairways to provide better drainage and more interest.

“The course is within a kilometre of the Rhine River, and is thus partially sandy, but even so it was clear that we needed a bunker liner,” says Althaus. “Even on the parts of the site that have a sand base, the steep faces of the bunkers would erode quite badly without it, and also the sand of the sub-base and the bunker sand would intermingle and contaminate the bunkers.”

Althaus considered various liner options, but was led to select Capillary Bunkers on environmental grounds. “We considered various liner options, but I knew I needed a very strong and stable liner on environmental ground, which led us to choose Capillary Bunkers,” he explains. “The strength and neutrality of the Capillary Bunkers product made it the right choice.”

Construction work is complete, and the project is growing in – the course will reopen in spring 2022.
 

ENDS

NOTES TO EDITORS

1. At the core of our solution, Capillary Bunkers is a patented and engineered polymer-based concrete. It is the only building material that can rapidly drain water while also moving water up. Capillary Bunkers’ cutting-edge, patented technology helps you control water in any climate, season, and soil type, providing better, more consistent playing experiences while reducing costs. http://www.capillaryconcrete.com

2. Capillary Bunkers is recognized as the world’s leading and most advanced bunker liner, and the most durable bunker construction method. It allows water to flow through the base of the bunker while keeping sand on the faces and preventing washouts, keeping bunkers in perfect shape during any weather condition. Over 800 courses around the world have built or renovated their bunkers with Capillary Concrete, including dozens of golf’s top 100 courses.

3. Photography to support this release can be downloaded from this Dropbox link.
 

Issued by Adam Lawrence, Oxford Golf Consulting

adam@oxfordgolfconsulting.com, tel +44 (0)7971 754649.

Architect Christian Lundin is working with Capillary Bunkers to restore Harry Colt and John Morrison’s design at historic Stockholms Golfklubb.

KEVINGE STRAND, SWEDEN, JULY 29, 2021 – Swedish, and possibly Scandinavian, golf’s first historic course restoration is currently underway at the Stockholms Golfklubb in the country’s capital city. The course was originally designed by the great English architect Harry Colt and his partner John Morrison, and was opened in 1932.

After many years of changes, the club has decided to restore Colt and Morrison’s design, and has enlisted golf architect Christian Lundin of (re)Golf to lead the project. And the course’s bunkers, one of the key aspects of the restoration, are being built using the Capillary Bunkers liner product to ensure the best performance and to lock in the new/old look.

“The course has been run down for some years, with irrigation and bunkers that were not up to scratch,” says architect Lundin. “The club did an irrigation and drainage project fifteen years ago, but the members were not happy with the work, as it was not true to the history of the course.”

Stockholms GK therefore resolved, a few years ago, to carry out most course work in-house, but called in Lundin to help resolve a problem caused by a local authority plan to build a major electric cable – to supply Stockholm with power – right across the property. The cable would have disturbed the club’s practice green – though it could have been rebuilt afterwards – but Lundin told the club: “If I am going to touch this course, it needs to be a true restoration.” The message resonated with members, and therefore after extensive discussion and historical research, the project got under way at the beginning of July.

Lundin and the club chose to use Capillary Bunkers to secure the design’s long-term future. “When they built the course I’m certain they built to the best standards they can. The same is true nowadays,” he says. “We’re not trying to restore 1932 maintenance standards. We want to give them a playing experience that matches what they had back then, but with modern standards.” The course’s 92 bunkers will be restored to match early photographs – of which research has revealed a very good bank. “Our process is to look at the old views and I do hand sketches of what we want to replicate,” says the architect. 

Head greenkeeper Andreas Wahlberg says that the use of a product like Capillary Bunkers will free up time for his team to focus on preserving the historical aesthetic of the new bunkers. “Over the years, like many older courses, we had lost the shape of the golf course, mostly to make it easier to maintain,” he explains. “The new bunkers will be more consistent and easier to maintain. If I’m not worrying about drainage then I can give more attention to maintaining a complex bunker edge.”

The first phase of the project, involving 40-45 bunkers, will be completed by end July. The course will then reopen for eight weeks, before closing in late September to allow the construction team – including shapers Marcus Terry and Simon Broadley of British contractor 1st Golf Construction – to finish the project. The restored course will then open completely in spring 2022.
 

ENDS

NOTES TO EDITORS

1. At the core of our solution, Capillary Bunkers is a patented and engineered polymer-based concrete. It is the only building material that can rapidly drain water while also moving water up. Capillary Bunkers’ cutting-edge, patented technology helps you control water in any climate, season, and soil type, providing better, more consistent playing experiences while reducing costs. http://www.capillaryconcrete.com

2. Capillary Bunkers is recognized as the world’s leading and most advanced bunker liner, and the most durable bunker construction method. It allows water to flow through the base of the bunker while keeping sand on the faces and preventing washouts, keeping bunkers in perfect shape during any weather condition. Over 800 courses around the world have built or renovated their bunkers with Capillary Concrete, including dozens of golf’s top 100 courses.

3. Photography to support this release can be downloaded from this Dropbox link. 

Issued by Adam Lawrence, Oxford Golf Consulting

adam@oxfordgolfconsulting.com, tel +44 (0)7971 754649.