🔈 We'll be attending the GCSAA Conference and Trade show 2025 in San Diego. Come meet us in booth 2014 and experience our products live!
Learn more
Vancleave, MS
VANCLEAVE, MISSISSIPPI, DECEMBER 6 2021 – For almost any product, there is an environment that provides its toughest test. If you’re making extreme winter clothing, and you get asked to supply your gear to McMurdo Station, the largest settlement in Antarctica, you’ll know it is going to get the best possible test. Similarly if you sell bunker liners and you get asked to supply The Preserve GC, in Vancleave in southern Mississippi.
Designed by Jerry Pate and opened in 2005, The Preserve is attached to the Palace Casino Resort in nearby Biloxi. According to director of operations Stephen Miles, the course does 13,000 rounds in an average year, though the post-Covid golf boom means 2021 has been significantly busier. And, let us not beat about the bush: this part of the Gulf coast is the wettest location in the whole of the continental United States, averaging almost 70 inches (1780mm) of rain a year. And 2021 has been wetter still than that: club meteorologist Jeremy Steven reports that the figure for this year is very close to 100 inches (2,540mm).
Fortunately for Miles and his team, back in 2014, The Preserve chose to rebuild its bunkers and line them with CapillaryFlow Bunkers technology. “Nine years after opening is not a long time to have to renovate, but the infrastructure in the original build of the course was simply not up to coping with our weather,” he says. “The bunkers were originally lined with fabric, but it was wearing out, and we needed a more resilient solution. I knew that concrete had the tendency to get stronger over time, and CapillaryFlow Bunkers was less restrictive in the conditions needed for installation than its closest rival. I was confident at the time that we had made the right choice and installed a product that would stand the test of time. And time has proved we made the right choice!”
“We have not had to repair our bunkers at all, and, incredibly, the original sand is still in them,” Miles says. “Since 2014, I have bought one truckload of sand, and that was for the bunker in our chipping green – which gets blasted out by players. Our bunkers have flashed sand faces, but our minimal washout issues only occur where water actually flows into the bunkers. When we get a big rain – and eight to ten inches of rain is not uncommon – we have to wait for the drainage infrastructure underneath the bunkers to catch up with the bunkers’ ability to move water. But it always does, and then the crew can prepare the bunkers for play again.”
CapillaryFlow makes it possible to design baseball fields that are able to withstand tough playing conditions as well as ensure a healthy game experience for players.
Our proprietary Capillary Material makes it possible to have a bunker liner that rapidly drain while also retaining adequate sand moisture, creating the perfect playing conditions in golf course bunkers.
The Capillary Hydroponics system enables us to grow strong and durable grass with significantly less maintenance and environmental impact
Optimal riding conditions in any weather by providing a ground material technology offering superior drainage capacity and enabling use of subsurface moisture control - for the optimal footing
Capillary Hydroponic turf lengthens the season with natural strong grass that stays healthier even with a busy schedule
Our Capillary Hydroponics solution turns hardscaped surfaces into breathable, living spaces that augment the positive effects of greenery in urban environments.
