St Andrews Links Blog

Winter maintenance on the Old Course

It has been a busy winter so far on the Old Course. Mild weather until recent weeks has allowed us to achieve a number of winter projects in preparation for next year’s Open Championship.

We began with some bunker rebuilding, starting with one of the largest on the course; ‘Cartgate’ on hole 3. In addition to this we rebuilt the small bunker next to the 15th green.

Face removal of ‘Cartgate’ bunker

‘Cartgate’ bunker face lift: Completed

Bunker rebuild next to the 15th green

Bunker work takes up a large amount of man hours during the winter here at the Home of Golf. Between October and December 2019, over 511 hours were devoted to bunkers on the Old Course alone. Depending on the size, they can take varying lengths of time to finish. For comparison, ‘Cartgate’ took 6 weeks to rebuild whereas the greenside bunker on the 15th hole took around 5 days.

Other winter projects have included adding further mounding for spectator viewing around the 15th and 16th tee complexes. An external contractor, Golflink Evolve, completed the main shaping work and our greenkeeping team then carried out the finishing touches.

‘Golflink Evolve’ shaping the mounding around the 16th tee

We then prepared and turfed the completed mounding. The final result on the 15th and 16th holes can be seen below.

Road at the 11th tee. This will be tarred and turfed.

As you can see, there has been a lot of work going on over the last few months. We’re not finished yet with work continuing as we gear up for another summer season at the Home of Golf.

Words by Gordon Mckie, Course Manager – Old Course.