Princes Golf Club
Princes Golf Club in Sandwich, Kent is a classic Links golf course set in the same stretch of coastal dunes as Royal St Georges and Royal Cinque ports. It is probably best known as the venue of the 1932 Open Championship where Gene Sarazen debuted his recent golfing invention, the sand wedge, which he used to great affect as he went on to win his first and only Open Championship. Unfortunately the original layout that hosted the Open was lost during WWII but the present 27 hole course, which was laid out in 1950, still poses a very good test and has hosted the Curtis Cup and is still used as Open Qualifying venue.
Although the longest combination of the 3 loops of nines is relatively long, measuring just under 7,300 yards, recent advances in technology have left a number of the revetted pot style bunkers obsolete. EGD were recently asked to assist the Golf Club formulate a long term strategy to update and improve the golf course. The first phase of this process began this week when I visited the course to assist the greenkeeping team with the renovation of a number of the revetted bunkers, a process which will be ongoing throughout the winter months.
As a greens committee member at a course with bunker erosion problems I was very interested in your article on Princes Revetting works. The photographs suggest a high quality project but even with high standards of workmanship how long do revetted faces typically last before they have to be re constructed?
I’d like to advocate more bunkers of this type on my course but I am concerned at the potential whole life costs of these features.
Have you any advice?
Hi Richard,
Maintenance is an ongoing process with a typical turf renewal every 4-5 years, although the life expectancy of the bunker face will be affected by exposure to the sun and wind which can cause the face to dry out and crumble. Additional Sprinkers are sometimes installed to include coverage of southern facing revetted bunkers exposed to the sun to try and prevent the faces from drying out but generally these bunkers need to be rebuilt more frequently.