‘Can we have ecobunker in brown?’ asked Secession Director of Golf Operations (and ex PGA Tour player), Mike Harmon.


After playing one qualifying round for the Seniors British Open at Southerndown, in 2014, Mike knew he had found the solution to the eroding bunkers at his home South Carolina Links, but he wanted to go a step further and get everything exactly to his specifications.

coloured bunker facesMike is passionate about British Links golf, and he loves the look of the ‘burnt off’ revetted bunkers you see a lot, especially in Scotland. This look is created on natural turf by spraying ‘round -up’ (or similar) on the finished faces, and creates a cleaner brown look, with less grass to cut. Our synthetic turf creates a greener look, but after some research and development we were able to give Mike exactly what he wanted. The option to colour faces is now an option available exclusively to all our clients should they wish to select it.

The installation project is also worthy of a mention: Secession have an excellent in-house greens team, led by superintendent, Mark Mitchell. They wanted their team to build the bunkers, but needed guidance and leadership from an expert. Step in Llewellyn Matthews. During the summer of 2015, Llewellyn and the Secession crew defied temperatures over 100F, delivering over 7000 sq ft (680 sq m) of ecobunker face on 44 large bunkers. The project was completed on time, under budget and to an extremely high standard.

‘Without the skill, leadership and motivation provided by Llewellyn we would not have been able to achieve this. The results are fantastic and during those 3 months here at Secession, Llewellyn has made friends he will keep for life, most notably myself’ Mark Mitchell