Southerndown GC (1905) hosts major amateur and professional tournaments on behalf of the R&A, Golf Union of Wales and other promoters. In 2014 Southerndown were over halfway through an 84 bunker restoration project using our synthetic turf invention. The fact that nearly 50 bunkers were at that stage fully converted was no obstacle to hosting several high profile events. During that year the club hosted the top amateur event ‘The Duncan Putter’ (past winners include Paul Way, Peter McEvoy, Phillip Price and Jamie Donaldson), the Home Internationals, and was also a final qualifying venue for the Seniors British Open, which was later won in spectacular style by Bernhard Langer. Director of Golf John Peters was keen to obtain feedback from some famous names to have played in that event including Manuel Pinero and Gary Hallberg.

‘Not many of the Seniors even noticed that the bunkers had artificial faces. And those that did thought that were very good’ confirmed John.

Southerndown was the first golf club in the world to commit contractually to a full restoration of all their bunkers using our synthetic bunker face system. On a beautiful, but windswept links style site where erosion was accelerated by the presence of grazing animals, the greenkeeping team has already found confirmation that they will be saving at least £20,000 per annum on their bunker maintenance activities. With a minimum lifespan of 20 years, that’s a saving of over £400,000.