Your greenkeepers spend hours and hours every week raking bunkers but it’s not just in people power where the costs can add up.
Maintenance and renovation, the price of sand, and even haulage rates for getting those precious grains to your course, can have a big impact on budgets.
But how much does a bunker really cost? A 2024 report, the Great British Bunker Study, gave an insight into some of the big figures, while looking at what specialist companies are charging can also help tot up the numbers.
With the average lifespan of stacked turf in a revetted bunker being between three and five years, and a course like Royal St George’s rebuilding up to 25 of them each year, it doesn’t take a huge imagination to see how things can quickly spiral.
Looking at 32 courses, the bunker study revealed the average bunker maintenance costs for a club were £43,000 a year, with it costing £887.56 to maintain a single sand hazard every 12 months – not including repair or renovation expenses.
You get a sense of how they arrived at those figures by considering the cost of sand itself – with prices for the typical sand that’s in lots of bunkers rising to as much as £65 a tonne.
Speaking to the NCG Golf Podcast back in 2023, North Hants Course Manager Sam Evans said “in the average bunker you might put three tonnes in”.
Then add in transport costs – such as fuel and haulage – in getting the sand to the course. The figures for this vary, but typical ranges can be around £10 to £25 per tonne.
Go for a higher quality sand, and the costs increase again, with prices of £100 and above out there for a tonne of premium sand.
So if you’re at a course with a lot of bunkers, you can quickly see how increases in prices, in fuel, and in transportation, can see bills rising significantly.
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But should clubs also be considering how they are managed?
Could your club cut bunker budgets without changing the course too much?
We all know how important bunkers are to many of our courses – and we know what tends to happen when we go in one!
We also know they’re time consuming and costly. Should clubs look again at bunkers and how they’re managed? Many already are.
Golf Course 2030 aims to guide the sport through the impact of climate change and consider the use of resources, while preparing for the effect future regulations may have on course conditioning. The initiative helps clubs implement sustainable practices, while maintaining playability.
Developed by The R&A in consultation with the wider golf industry, the project is behind a series of initiatives. One major research area resulted in the Golf Course Condition and Playability report, which offers clubs sustainability guidelines and support and reveals some intriguing findings about bunkers.
“Due to course changes over the years… many have become redundant in terms of actual influence on play,” it says.
“Research has shown a growing trend whereby clubs are reviewing the design and number of bunkers in view of modern player strategies. As a result, their removal, remodelling, reconstruction or replacement have become commonplace.”
The report adds: “Many bunkers can easily be reduced in size too without significantly affecting their purpose or functionality. Furthermore, removing those that rarely come into play can provide significant long-term cost savings.
“Bunkers can be made more maintenance friendly by reducing the slopes in and around them to help improve drainage and minimise washouts. Bunkers without any play, unnecessary duplicates or those that impact on speed of play can easily be removed.”
Presenting bunkers in a more natural shape is identified as another way of bringing costs down, while converting a regular bunker to a grass bunker is suggested as an option for those without large budgets.
“Grass bunkers with machine mowable slopes of less than 33% are less expensive to maintain than their sand counterparts.”
This article appears in Your Course, from the British and International Golf Greenkeepers Association. Your Course invites golfers to gain a deeper appreciation of what preparing and maintaining a golf course really involves. Head to www.bigga.org.uk to find out more.
Now have your say
What do you think? Were you aware of how much a bunker cost? Let me know by leaving a comment below, or get in touch on X.
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