It is the nature of golf course superintendents to seek control in the day-to-day goings-on of the job. Variables like height of cut and application of water, fertilizers and pesticides are part of every superintendent's management plan, but bunker maintenance can be a different animal. Edges erode and washouts can occur with regularity.
A stabilization product that its developer says can be incorporated into existing stocks of sand to help prevent erosion, washouts and other bunker-related headaches is now available in the U.S.
Loksand from Loksand Global is a soil amendment comprising interlocking, crimped polypropylene fibers that become intertwined during mixing to bind and stabilize soil and sand profiles for use in hard-to-control areas like steep-faced bunkers and bunker edges. It was developed in Australia by former superintendent Danny Potter, founder of Centaur Asia-Pacific, an Aussie-based distributor of solutions for turf managers.
During construction of the Miakka (sic) Golf Club, a 2024 Dana Fry-Jason Straka design in Myakka City, Florida, Loksand was used to established the club's steep-faced bunkers that were patterened after those found on Australian sandbelt designs.
"There is only so much you can do with sand," said Loksand's Wayne Branthwaite, a former superintendent in Loksand's newly opened Jupiter, Florida office. "When you get the fiber in there, you have a malleable product you can work with."
While providing stability to help keep bunker sand in place, the Loksand fibers also help create pore spaces that promote movement of oxygen and water.
"You'd think it would prevent drainage, but it's the opposite," said Branthwaite. "It increases pore spacing and the ability to hold oxygen and reduces erosion."
Loksand also allows users to amend poor quality turf in heavily trafficked areas, such as fairway cart path entry and exit points, walkways and green exits.
The suggested mix rate is 3 kg (6.6 pounds) per ton, according to the company.
"We're still establishing the limits of what it can do," Potter said.
"What’s more, Loksand can be mixed using whatever soils and sands you have on site. No need for any expensive import of particular sand mixes.
"It's the crimp in the fiber that makes the difference. The crimp is what zigzags through the soil/sand particles and holds them all together. By adding the fibers, we're able to safely build bunkers with steeper angles of repose, in more dramatic shapes, without collapsing. The addition of Loksand also provides those faces better, more stable and predictable drainage and percolation, which invariably leads to better root structures — which ultimately stabilizes these steep areas that much better, over time."
The Loksand technology was used during a 2023 renovation at Singapore Island Country Club by architect Graham Marsh. Erosion damage to the bunkers under reconstruction was a constant problem during the rainy season. Every time Marsh returned to check on construction progress, many had invariably eroded and collapsed. Loksand solved those issues, Marsh said.
"I could tell immediately that this stuff was holding," Marsh said. "The bunker face was accepting it and the sand was staying in place. After several days of heavy rains — and nowhere in the world does it rain like Singapore — it remained in place."