Better Billy Bunker Trial Bunkers

We were able to have the Better Billy Bunker company come out and install their product on three of our bunkers.  My reasoning for doing this was to use the time between now and when a renovation is done, to see if this method of bunker lining is really is as great as everyone says it is.  We spend more time and money on our bunkers than any other part of the golf course other than the greens.  Even with all of these added resources, we still are not satisfied with their quality.
  Many courses have started implementing the Better Billy Bunker process at their courses because of the rave reviews it has received and amount of labor it cuts down on in the bunkers each day.  In a typical installation, a contractor would have to come in and remove all of the existing sand, check performance of the existing drainage lines, add a 2" layer of stone, spray the epoxy, then go through the process of adding new sand back to the bunker.  Because this is a trial we did all of this work with our own crew other than the spraying in of the epoxy liner.  Below is the process:

All the existing sand has already been removed and a blanket of gravel has been installed.  Typically a bunker does not have this stone layer.

Stone layer before epoxy liner.



Signs placed around bunkers to keep golfers from entering to retrieve golf balls.

Better Billy Bunker crew arrives and uses a meter to check moisture.  If stone is not dry they cannot apply epoxy.



Smoothing out footprints from a few that entered bunker to retrieve golf ball.

Process of applying epoxy begins.

Applying epoxy liner to stone

Epoxy application complete.

Circled bunker and placed several signs around outside to keep golfers from walking on new liner.

Caution tape and signs to keep golfers out while material dries.

Better Billy Bunker crew returns following day to perform quality control.

Some one didn't see the caution tape and signs.  The circles are footprints and places that had to be redone.

Applying epoxy by hand to the damaged areas.

Measuring square footage

We soaked this area for several minutes to see if it would puddle.  Everything drained away immediately.

We begin to add new sand.

New sand added.

Spreading sand by hand.

We remove all the attachments from the bunker rake to pack everything in with the tires.

We also use hose to wet the sand while we are compacting it.

We will come back and add more sand and continue to pack these bunkers over the next few days.