Hugh King & Co’s sand

Royal Porthcawl Golf Club has completed a six-year search for the perfect top-dressing in time for this year’s Senior Open Championship. The revered Welsh club, which started its quest due to dwindling local supplies, confirmed it has secured sand from one of the country’s leading sport sand suppliers based 441 miles away in Ayrshire, Scotland.
The Washed Dune Sand, which is being supplied by Hugh King & Co, is the closest alternative to the sand used by the 123-year-old club to top-dress its smooth-running greens. According to Ian Kinley, course manager at Royal Porthcawl, the new sand is almost an identical match.
“Like many links golf courses, our indigenous sand supply has been exhausted,” he explained. “We set out to replicate it as closely as possible and the closest replacement we could find, or indeed anyone can find is Hugh King’s Washed Dune Sand which is essentially what we were using before. You struggle to find it anywhere.”
In total, 300 tonnes of sand is applied to Royal Porthcawl’s greens annually producing the smooth and fast greens for which the club is famed. “We do so much top-dressing that we wanted a product we could apply and people would barely tell we had done it. If you use a bright white sand, it stands out like a sore thumb.”
Not only was the colour and purity of Hugh King & Co’s Washed Dune Sand ideal, but delivery times weren’t an issue despite the 882-mile round trip. “The colour is perfect and it is extremely clean – we have yet to find any imperfections or contamination,” noted Kinley. “And despite the distance, the delivery times are generally two days after we make the call.”
 

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