ʻHome of Colonel Bogeyʼ installs EcoBunker

By Alistair May 25, 2018 06:06 Updated

Gosport and Stokes Bay Golf Club was founded in 1885, making it one of the 50 oldest clubs in England. Created as a venue for recreation for army and royal navy officers stationed in Gosport and Portsmouth, the United Services Club, as it was called, was a military-only venue until the 1920s.

The idea of playing matches against ʻground scoreʼ, which is to say the number of strokes that a first class player having a steady game would take on a hole, was invented in 1890 at Coventry Golf Club, and spread quickly to a number of other clubs, in particular Great Yarmouth, where ʻground scoreʼ was christened Bogey, after a popular music hall song of the time entitled ʻHush, Hush, Here Comes the Bogey Manʼ.

In 1892, the secretary of the Great Yarmouth club came to the United Services Club, and introduced the idea of Bogey to the club. They quickly worked out a Bogey score for the course, whereupon the secretary, Captain Seeley Vidal of the Royal Engineers, pointed out that every member of the club had a service rank, and therefore so should this new player, Bogey – and, as he never made a mistake, he must surely be a Colonel – though the great golf writer Bernard Darwin later expressed his surprise that Bogey was not either a field marshal or an admiral of the fleet!

Todayʼs course is a combination of the original nine holes and the adjoining ladiesʼ course founded in 1893, though the site has been compressed over the years by the sale of land to the Ministry of Defence. The club continues to try to improve its course, and it has just completed the biggest renovation in its history.

For many years the club has had a problem with bunkers. Being so close to the coast has its positives but also its drawbacks with stones always present – and damaging playersʼ clubs wasnʼt a positive.

Club greens’ chair Mark Williams knew something had to be done, and began to research ways to improve the bunkers. It was as part of this process that Williams came across the EcoBunker system.

EcoBunker founder Richard Allen visited the club and agreed with Williams that his system was the perfect solution to the ongoing bunker issues. After a meeting with members it was agreed that Ecobunker would supply the materials required but also use its specialist construction team to ensure the installation was perfectly executed.

Work began in February of this year and the new bunkers were opened for play in April. They have been an immediate success, with high praise from all that have played in them. No longer are there stones, and the club have also taken advice to use a different type of sand – making the bunkers a pleasure to play out of.

Mark Williams said: “The EcoBunker team was professional from the outset, and took great pride in their work – which has transformed the look and playability of our already fantastic course. We look forward to seeing the EcoBunker team at our upcoming pro-am!”