Brian:
I've expressed before that among the world's great courses Ballybunion may stand out for the limited impact removing all bunkers would have on playing the course.
Mind you, some of my "local" friends disagree with me on this point. Indeed, we have very different views on specific holes. For example, on the short par 3 8th hole I feel one could remove the pot bunkers in front of the green and not effect play that much. However, my friends who play the course 3-4 times per week (as opposed to my 3-4 times per year) argue quite strongly that the bunkers do effect play quite a bit.
Anyway, I hold to my view that a large number of holes don't require bunkers at all (#2,6,7,9,10,11,12,13,14,15, and 17. Even if one eliminated the bunkers on hte remaining holes, not much would change, though I'll acknowledge they do play an important role on #1,3 (maybe), 5 (for sure - the cross bunker) and 16 (where the blind bunkers impact trying the cut the dogleg corner).