History of the original "Billy Bunker"

 

 

It was during Billy Fuller’s tenure at Augusta National Golf Club as golf course superintendent from 1981 – 1986 that he developed what has become affectionately known as “Billy Bunkers,” a specification for constructing golf course sand bunkers.  Originally known as the Enhanced Bunker Drainage Method, the primary purpose behind this spec was to minimize sand erosion and sand contamination from native soils during heavy rainstorms.  Fuller left Augusta to join Cupp Design as design associate and senior agronomist with Bob Cupp.  In 1994 he introduced the Billy Bunker spec to the golf construction industry, and since then more than 600 golf courses across North America have used this method to construct bunkers.  The primary features of this bunker spec are a two-inch gravel layer applied over the bunker floor and herringbone tile system capped with a geo-textile liner.  The gravel serves as a conduit for water to transfer down the bunker floor slopes into the tile pipe system, thus greatly reducing and/or eliminating sand movement.  The liner secures the gravel blanket and prevents native soils underneath from contaminating the preferred bunker sand that was installed overtop the liner.  This method has consistently reduced manpower requirements in bunkers following rainstorms by 80 percent or more.