Why So Many Bunkers?

I’m in this perpetual mental wrestling match with the ideas of bunkers on a golf course. As many of you know, RSPGL has 87 of them. That might not seem like many until you have to care for them. Right machinery, right kind of sand, right drainage, prepared a certain way.

What’s fascinating…. is that courses built 120 years ago, both in Europe, and even in the U.S. had more than 87 bunkers. If they were harder to build without dozers and backhoes, why did they think it was a good idea to have so many?

Simple, they were not expected to be maintained very well once they were created. They were literally unkept gashes in the landscape. Today, bunkers are a huge problem, not because they are hard to build, it’s because the modern golfer believes they must be maintained perfectly. The time and money wasted in making something that is supposed to cause stress absolutely pristine; is not only costing you extra money, I think we are missing the whole point of the game.

The game: is you – against the course. Overcoming conditions, finding solutions, accepting bad bounces, enjoying great ricochets, employing strategy. I’m not exactly sure how we got to this idea that everything needs to be pretty, and everything needs to fair, and everything needs to be perfect, but we are here. You write Google reviews if it’s not. Are you totally against adventure? It’s an interesting thought to ponder…ask yourself …could you get on board with a more rustic game of golf? Leave a comment….

20 Comments

  1. Brian Thompson March 29, 2022
    • Nick Stephens, PGA March 29, 2022
  2. quinn callahan March 29, 2022
    • Nick Stephens, PGA March 29, 2022
  3. Al Dummer March 29, 2022
    • Nick Stephens, PGA March 29, 2022
  4. Bob Balza March 29, 2022
    • Nick Stephens, PGA March 29, 2022
  5. R Sanders March 29, 2022
    • Nick Stephens, PGA March 29, 2022
  6. Terry Winiarski March 29, 2022
    • Nick Stephens, PGA March 29, 2022
  7. Dave March 29, 2022
    • Nick Stephens, PGA March 29, 2022
  8. Nate March 29, 2022
    • Nick Stephens, PGA March 29, 2022
  9. Dave March 29, 2022
    • Nick Stephens, PGA March 29, 2022
  10. Ryan April 5, 2022
    • Nick Stephens, PGA May 2, 2022

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