Lohmann Companies

Golf Creations' debut as certified Better Billy Bunker installer

LORTON, Va. — Here’s a good argument for the scions of golf course architects getting out there on their own, making their own way, before eventually working for the family firm.

Matt Lohmann is a project manager here at Golf Creations, the sister construction division of Lohmann Golf Designs. He’s also the son of LGD founder Bob Lohmann. When Matt got his start in the golf business, he did so on his own — going to work as a construction superintendent for Wadsworth Golf Construction Co. Hard to beat that sort of experience.

During his tenure at Wadsworth, he oversaw construction here at Laurel Hill Golf Club. That was 2004-05, and Matt would go on to complete a couple other projects before leaving Wadsworth in 2007. But he’s back in Lorton, Va., this summer, overseeing a Golf Creations-led bunker reconstruction project in anticipation of next year’s U.S. Amateur Public Links Championship, scheduled for Laurel Hill GC July 15-20, 2013.

“I went back to Laurel Hill a number of times after it was built while doing some other work in northern Virginia, just to see how things were going and to play the course, but it’s been a few years now,” Matt explains. “It’s nice to see the course was designed and built well enough to attract a USGA championship.”

Designed by Bill Love, Laurel Hill Golf Club is indeed a beauty — situated on rolling terrain that previously housed a District of Columbia Department of Corrections facility at Lorton, whose prisoners operated a dairy farm on site. Matt Lohmann has returned with his Golf Creations colleagues to reinstall the sand in all 120 bunkers using the Better Billy Bunker method, a process Golf Creations was certified to carry out this summer.

“When we originally built these bunkers, we used a woven fabric liner,” Matt explained. “Over time, there was contamination however, and some of the fabric we used had been ripped by the sand pro. Once that fabric is ripped, it just gets worse and worse. Because Golf Creations has been certified as a Better Billy Bunker installer, we’ve been brought in to redo all 120 bunkers.”

The Better Billy Bunker method involves laying down 2 inches of gravel across the entire bunker “floor”. A spray polymer is applied; it seeps down amidst the gravel profile and hardens into a strong-but-flexible bond, holding the gravel together. This layer effectively holds sand on the steepest of bunker faces and manages to move water through it at a rate up to 350 inches an hour.

“This is a 4-5 week process that will be done in September,” Matt explained. “We’re dodging a few golf balls because the course isn’t closing — just some temporary greens on affected holes as we work hole-by-hole through the course. It’s been a great experience all around, because we’re putting to work our Better Billy Bunker certification, which is a credit to Golf Creations — not every contractor is entrusted with this sort of work — and it’s great to come back to Laurel Hill.

“I guess it’s always our goal to leave a course better than we found it. But considering my history here, it feels even better on this project.”