Royal Guernsey completes first phase of major bunker project

By Alistair April 19, 2019 08:36 Updated

The historic Royal Guernsey, located at L’Ancresse on the Channel Island, between England and France, has completed the first phase of a multi-year rebunkering using the EcoBunker Advanced synthetic edging product.

The project started in December 2017, when EcoBunker construction manager Llewelyn Matthews travelled to Guernsey to build a test bunker on the club’s short game practice area. The success of this trial project convinced Royal Guernsey to sign up for a three-year project to rebuild all 31 bunker on the golf course, as well as adding some new fairway traps in the last phase (winter 2020-21). Matthews returned to the L’Ancresse links – also home to the L’Ancresse Golf Club – in November 2018 for a ‘refresher’ training exercise.

Course manager Marcus Hamon says: “These bunkers needed to be right as they would be around for a long time. Llewellyn didn’t let me down and the rebuilt bunkers look great and sit nicely in the undulations of the golf course. The service from Richard and the team at EcoBunker was first class from the very first telephone call to the end of phase one. I look forward to working with them on phases two and three and wouldn’t hesitate in recommending them to anyone in the future.”

EcoBunker CEO Richard Allen says: “The success of the Royal Guernsey project is a testimony to the effectiveness of our EcoBunker Advanced process, which reduces the weight of turf required to build a bunker by the use of cantilevering and a cement modified backfill. This both strengthens the bunker wall, and dramatically reduces the shipping costs of the product. Had we been forced to use our original method, with wider tiles of artificial turf, the shipping to Royal Guernsey would have required two full trucks. Instead we only needed one; a saving to the club of £2,500 just on the first phase of the project.

“The best engineering solutions deliver the required outcomes whilst avoiding environmental impact, use of resources and minimising cost. My original invention was good in many, many respects, but as it was very heavy, as soon as we began exporting around the world I recognised the need for ‘value engineering’. VE was one of my principal responsibilities whilst working as a technical director in a civil engineering consultancy. Weight adds considerable shipping cost, so I designed (and protected) a far more efficient solution, which we call EcoBunker Advanced.

“All of us at EcoBunker are delighted at the superb bunker work being undertaken by Marcus Hamon and his dedicated team on the lovely L’Ancresse Links.”

Marcus Hamon concludes: “The members of the golf club are delighted with the 15 bunkers that have been rebuilt. The bunkers at L’Ancresse have been a weak area for a number of years and the new EcoBunkers have totally transformed bunkering on the course. We are looking forward to the winter of 2021 and the completion of the bunker rebuilding programme.”