The Masters: The Secret of Their Bunkers

With The Masters in full swing at Augusta National people, as always, are in awe of the beauty of the golf course and the way it is maintained.  One of the things that stand out is the beautiful pure white bunkers.  The reason they are so outstanding is that they are filled with something very unusual.

We all know that the guys playing there this week are excellent bunker players, but have you noticed how you rarely, if ever, see a ball in a buried lie.  It’s that special sand.  The famous Augusta National sand is actually a waste product of the feldspar mining process.  Normal sand is called feldspar sand which is a mixture of quartz and feldspar.  What you have at Augusta is pure quartz and it has a shape that makes it lock together tight enough to stay in place on the face of the bunkers which results in no buried lies.

I learned during a bunker renovation project a few years ago that bunker sand is not just ordinary sand and Augusta’s is the most extraordinary of the bunch.  Bunker sand is common sand that has been through a manufacturing process that primarily controls its shape.  If it is too round and smooth it will not stay in place and every shot is a fried egg.  If it has enough edges it stays in place and packs firmly – no plugged balls or fried eggs.  And anything in between depending on your budget and the type golfer you are expecting to play out of them.

Because Augusta’s sand is no longer considered a waste byproduct of feldspar mining and is used in the production of silicon it has become very expensive.

“The quartz created by this mining process is extremely pure, which is why those bunkers really pop on your HDTV. That’s why the bunkers are so white. Spruce Pine quartz is the best in the world, and the quartz created from the feldspar mining process is so white and so pure.”

– Drew Coleman, Professor of Geological Sciences at the University of North Carolina.

In other words Augusta National is one of the few courses that can afford it anymore so don’t bother going to your golf committee or club owner and asking for “Augusta Sand.”

Cover Photo via Wikicommons