Powell, Ohio, United States: Designed by Arthur Hills and opened in 2004, the Kinsale Golf and Fitness Club sits just outside the golf hotbed of Columbus, Ohio.

Part of a successful up-market real estate development, Kinsale is one of the most successful family-oriented clubs in the area. Under the watchful eye of Superintendent Rob Fisher since 2016, the course has gone from strength to strength.

Built on heavy clay, bunker drainage is Kinsale’s single biggest maintenance issue, especially given the high flashed sand faces that dot the course. When the course was built, a fabric liner was installed in some of the steeper faced bunkers, and it worked well enough for a time, but soon after he joined, Fisher realised that something more substantial was needed. 

After reviewing the bunker liner options, Fisher and the club’s leadership settled on the Capillary Bunkers solution – because, he says, of the great things he had heard about it from local clubs that had installed the product.

A key part of the attraction of Capillary Bunkers was that it was possible for Fisher and his team to install it themselves, without hiring an external contractor. And, for the last three years, that’s exactly what they’ve been doing.

“We have been going round the bunkers, pulling out the sand, the gravel and the drainage, reshaping them and putting in the Capillary Bunkers product,” he said.

“My assistant and I are doing most of the heavy construction with the backhoe, and we take three people off our mowing crew two days a week. They do the rest, including installing new bunker sand, by hand. Currently we are on our 12th hole – we have over 127,000 square feet of bunkers on the golf course, and our goal is to do them all.

“The product is unbelievable. In this day and age, everyone is trying to save a dollar here and there, but when the ownership saw how the product works, it was a no-brainer for them. They wanted it done, no matter what the product cost.

“The new bunkers look great. Three years on, the first ones we did look as though they are brand new. When there is rain, the crew hardly has to rake them. The product is amazing. I wish I’d had it many years ago. After a hard rain, the crew’s heads are down, they know they have to go out and shovel sand. But with this product, they don’t have to!”

Capillary Bunkers is an Associate Business Member of the Asian Golf Industry Federation.