POA golf committee education piece

By Renee Steinpreis, POA Golf Committee Education
I am writing this article to address some of the concerns, comments and myths about the sand bunkers in the Village. I would first like to present some facts!
here are hundreds of sand bunker in the Village.
They should be renovated every 10 - 15 years according to USGA guidelines. Some of ours have not been renovated in 30 years.
Because we live in such a rocky area, the rocks that are in the sand come up through the sand and contaminate it; the rocks are not hauled in with the sand.
We use limestone which is actually better than the sand we have had before. It will be used to replace sand in the bunkers as the rotations allows during the off season. We try to completely renovate two to three bunkers at each course over the winter.
The cost of sand is about the same as the amount it costs to haul it.
Sand bunkers in the Village are dressed two to three times per week weather permitting.
Heavy rains cause contamination of the sand in the bunkers and it takes longer after a down pour to get them back in shape.
The cost to renovate the bunkers on a course comparable to Granada is between $400,000 and $500,000.
On the bright side, there is a lot that each of us, as golfers in the Village, can do to assist in making the play out of the bunkers more fun! We can always rake after we have made our shot out of the sand. New wider rakes with longer handles have been added to many bunkers to make it easier to rake and as the old rakes are replaced they will be replaced with the wider ones.
Always enter the bunker from the low side and rake toward you. Do not push the sand up the sides of a bunker with the rake. Leave rakes in the bunkers when you are finished raking.
If you play late in the day and decide not to rake because it will be done the next morning, don't count on it. You should always rake the sand when you have finished playing out of a bunker.
Some of the bunkers are being replaced with grass depressions to help cut down the time, personal, and money needed to maintain sand bunkers. Three were completed at Magellan this year and five more are scheduled in 2011.
It would take a strong commitment over the next five years of both time and money to completely renovate the bunkers.
If you see a specific problem in a specific bunker, please report it to the Golf Shop so something can be done about it. We are all out there playing golf; be a good steward of our resources.