Trap Work

We have begun our early season cleanup of bunkers this week.  Bunkers, though technically a hazard, require the largest amount of man-hours to mantain to our standards.  We try to mantain at least a two inch "lip" or edge around all of our traps so that there is never a question about what is part of the hazard at what is not.  This requires that we edge them on a regular basis to keep grass from encroaching into the sand and to improve their appearance visually. 

We have found it more efficient to flymo the bunker capes and faces while the traps are already disturbed by the edging process.  Flymowing is performed on a more regular basis, nearly once a week during the peak of our growing season, and staffing levels.  Most of our staff would agree that flymowing is one of the most physically demanding tasks we do on the golf course. 

Once the grass clippings have been removed, sand is pushed around making sure there is even distribution of sand throughout the bunker, and to fix any washouts or highspots.  We have many steep trap faces here and though we rake them regularly, sand will slowly make its way down to the low areas of the trap.  Sand that has been pushed up trap faces will be soft, so it is thoroughly packed with the blunt end of the rake and gently smoothed out.  We run the sandpro over to stir up the sand in the low spots, smooth everything out and it's on to the next bunker.

Repeat this process 48 times and we are completely done just in time to start it all over again...
If you see the bunker crew out on the course, please be sure that they see you before hitting your next shot.  They will acknowledge that they see you, idle their machines down, and move out of the way.