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….
I love the layout of the bunkers all over the course. As an avid golfer the only bunkers I expect to be maintained and “pretty” are those around the greens. I don’t see all green side bunkers as a miss. Some of them are an aim point and a good place to land for your approach, especially on some par 5s on your 2nd shot. I’m my humble opinion the only penalty to being in a green side bunker should be one’s ability to control the shot out of it. Fairway bunkers and others should be treacherous, as it is supposed to be a penalty when landing in those. Thank you for all of your and your staffs hard work to give us a great place to play.
Brian, very interesting take. Although I feel like all bunkers “being bad” would be strategic, I have to agree that I fix things based on your premise. If you said I had $10,000 and could repair bunkers, for some reason I would look greenside first. I believe statistically you would fair better if I fixed the fairway bunkers first. A bad fairway bunker, you will only be able to advance it 10 yards. A bad greenside bunker, you ONLY need to advance it 10 yards.
I never considered that view on the condition of bunkers. If i encounter and unkept bunker I usually think “such a shame they can’t keep up on these bunkers” or “how hard can it be to keep these maintained.” Thanks for sharing your views.
Quinn, sounds like you have been programmed to see bunkers a certain way. That’s for reading and sharing.
I love the ponderings about bunkers, and your point is valid! As an “older” guy (just north of 60) I think your bunker commentary can be exploded across many non-golf situations. We’ve gotten a bit soft as a culture. (My job isn’t fulfilling enough. The crust on my pizza isn’t crisp enough. The comedian just said something I don’t like. . .) In life, as in golf, we sometimes just need to suck it up and play it as it lies! Thanks for your thoughts! Thanks for your golf course! Getting closer. . .
As I said to Mr. Balza, it sounds like you can get on board with a bunker being a problem. A problem that you play around… or you deal with the consequences.
In regard to bunkers … I hear that alot from course owners. Last year Lawsonia redesigned their Woodlands course and took out dozens of bunkers for two reasons: a) maintenance efficiency; b) speed up the play. They are not alone in that move.
I find it interesting that the pros are so good at playing out of bunkers that we often hear the people on TV say, “He would rather be in the bunker than in the tall rough around the green.” Personally, I have never felt that way about any of my approach shots. The bunkers, no matter how nicely groomed they may be, are still hard for most of us amateurs.
That’s one of the reasons that I am thankful when a course keeps its bunkers. Even well groomed, they are a challenge for us and we try to avoid them at all times.
So, my vote would be to keep the bunkers. They add to the beauty and the challenge of a course. I’m afraid that they also add to the expense of a course, and I realize that they may be disappearing. But when they do, an important and historic element of golf will disappear with them.
Would you be more abt to play around a bunker if it was an absolutely terrible place to be? They were originally a no-no.
“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.”
One possible explanation is that we amateurs, while watching the professionals on TV, continuously hear from the analysts how pristine the bunkers are that they play. How when hitting a “bad shot” it’s more desirable to miss into a bunker than the rough which might actually cause discomfort.
So we somehow get the idea that the bunkers we play, must be, if less than pristine, at least consistent. Not Russian roulette between hardpan, mud and fluff.
Everything on TV is made prettier. I’m pretty sure they always put make-up on Tom Brokaw. Do you wear make-up because he did?
Hi Nick,
I liked your “Why So Many Bunkers” article (as I do most of your articles!).
It is of my belief that the PGA telecasts have a big part in the need to have pristine conditions no matter where one’s golf ball lies on a course! How often do we hear about the spectacular conditions of PGA tour events which are held primarily at private country clubs. The television commentators even talk about the “bad” breaks when a putt goes slightly offline due to a little patch of Poa annua grass that is slightly darker than its surrounding area. But, back to bunkers: How often have we seen and heard on PGA telecasts how well a bunker has been raked or about a tough break occurring when a ball lies down between two rake marks? We golfers who play most, if not all, of our golf in the U.S. are conditioned like lab rats to expect pristine conditions on the courses we play whether they are private or muni courses. How often have we heard of a golf course being referred to as a cow pasture because the conditions were considered to be less than stellar? How often have we played at a course and landed in a bunker that was hard packed and then landed in another bunker that had considerably softer sand, or we’ve played a muni where the bunkers were more like gravel than sand? How about the courses where the grass just outside of a bunker is left to grow which can cause consternation when one’s ball lands on this rather than rolling into the sand? Some courses have gone through renovations by removing sand bunkers and then replacing them with grass bunkers (to save on overall maintenance). We as golfers just need to accept our fates and challenges that await us. If golf was too easy to play, many would choose not to do so. 🙂
As I read through your comment, I thought maybe it was tracking toward a justification of perfect conditioning. And then you ended with acceptance. With acceptance, there is joy. What can possibly be bad, if you are willing to accept everything.
I like my bunkers to be as nice and as well kept as the rest of the course and operation. When I play a cow pasture, I don’t feel overly critical of a hard pan bunker or a grease soaked crab cake.
I rarely choose to play the cow pastures.
Life is good when a greasy crab cake 2-3 years ago is still etched in your mind. I’m not sure your comment’s added anything to the good discussion.
Courses have to prioritize what they focus their time and resources into. Time spent having grounds crew raking fairway bunkers that only see a few visits a day would be much better spent on repairing ball marks and filling divots. Most casual golfers would move the ball into a better position if they felt the lie was unfair whether it was in a divot in the middle of the fairway or a footprint in the bunker.
When looking at a course condition it is always Greens > Tees > Fairways > Rough> Remaining Areas (Bunkers, Natural Areas, etc). No one ever walks off a course saying what great bunkers they had when the greens are in poor to OK condition. People love to complement how great the greens are at a course regardless of the condition of the outlying areas.
I can’t argue with any of your points. That is pretty much how I think about it too.
You just don’t want to hear my view. I know things can’t be perfect, but you have made a brand out of being pretty darn good. I like that. And I show up because of it.
I like nicely maintained bunkers. If I were paying extreme prices, I would expect extremely well maintained bunkers.
You have led us to expect a high standard at a fair price. I like that. I’ll accept a muddy troubled bunker here and there, but don’t expect me to expect them.
There is no finish line in the race to be among the best.
I think “broken” bunkers are one thing, the article was delving into the idea of whether they should be manicured so nicely, and what golf might be like if they weren’t. Personally, I don’t want to see them manicured. I believe…players would try to play a round them if they were unkept. I think that adds to the game. Obviously I don’t actually do what I prefer, because that would mean going against the last 75 years of golfer programming. That is a battle not even worth fighting. In the meantime we’ll just do what we can within the boundaries of “accepted golf”.
I’ve definitely fallen into the trap (pun intended) of whining about messy bunkers. However, I recently had the misfortune of a really nasty fried egg, on the side of a bunker. I was fuming as I approached my next shot. I closed the face, swung as hard as I could, and fell over after contact with the sand. Ended up making the 15 foot par putt and it was the most memorable shot of my trip to Arizona where I played two rounds. I have new found excitement towards golf in general now. Focusing less on my score (maybe) and more on the challenge each specific course gives me. I feel like that may have been something you spoke about in a previous post as well.
We are taught that golf is a scorecard and pencil game. It takes mental fortitude to go out there and simply enjoy hitting the ball and loving the nuances. I’m convinced….Those who can do that, simply love golf more.