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JDC bunkers down, repairs traps

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By Andrew Petersen | Saturday, July 12, 2008 |

Course superintendent Paul Grogan shows off one of the new bunkers at TPC Deere Run, where drainage problems are a thing of the past. Buy this Photo

It was hard keeping track of all the spots around the Quad-Cities covered by water this spring and summer, but the bunkers at TPC Deere Run weren’t among them.

The Silvis, Ill., course took on its share of water in the months leading up to this week’s John Deere Classic. Yet within a day of rain, the sand was dry.

That was hardly the case in past years.

“We’d get out there and pump water out, let (the bunkers) sit and push the sand back up,” Deere Run superintendent Paul Grogan said. “The bunkers wouldn’t be playable until four or five days later.”

The process required between 700 and 800 man hours, Deere Run general manager Ian Nichol estimated, and that had to change.

Work began last Oct. 15 to repair all 80 bunkers on the course. Eight months, 2,800 tons of sand and $800,000 later, the job was done.

“The original steep faces just never held the sand,” Grogan said. “You’d get into the clay layers, and the clay would contaminate the sand. Then basically all you’re doing is playing a mud ball.”

Through months of heavy rain this golf season, though, there’s been nary a mud ball.

That’s thanks to a complete bunker overhaul, contracted out to East Moline-based Dave Johnson Construction.

After removing the sand and existing drain tile, more efficient tile was installed, covered by a mat to keep the clay base from mixing with the sand.

To golfers, from the weekend amateur variety to the PGA Tour members, the changes are barely detectable, compared to the dry bunkers of the past. They just see the fluffy sand much more often.

“It’s all been very positive so far,” Nichol said. “It definitely needed to be done. The golfers couldn’t play them before.”

Grogan and his 32 maintenance employees have watched the wet weather test the traps plenty already.

The June 12 evening storms that led to flash flooding around the area hit Deere Run as hard as anywhere, but by 11 a.m. the next day, the bunkers were ready to absorb errant shots.

That same storm cost the course five trees, though Nichol said none ever came into play.

Grogan’s biggest obstacle in completing the project came in obtaining the sand itself.

The PGA’s rigid specifications for the sand used in tournament traps meant Grogan couldn’t buy the filler locally. Instead, all the sand was trucked in from northern Ohio.

A pain, but worth it in the end.

Andrew Petersen can be contacted at (563) 383-2288 or apetersen@qctimes.com.