Why do we rake bunkers...?

[paul cowley]

 ...as opposed to just letting them go ...raking maybe once a week.

[James Bennett]

The standard and style of bunkers impacts directly in cost terms, apart from playability and aesthetics.  A good course superintendent at an Adelaide sand-belt club did the sums for annual course preparation.  Bunker maintenance involved more annual resources than greens!

This analysis, and the plague of member views on bunkers is documented in the Australian Golf Course Superintentant's Turf Magazine.  You can access the bunkers articles via the following web address. The article includes a lovely picture of the 15th par 3 at Kingston Heath - one of MacKenzie's creations, as well as the issues of bunker maintenance around the world.
http://www.agcsa.com.au/guests/atm_articles/6_3a.html

[Zack Kelly]

very intersting idea, I believe that this would definetly bring bunkers back to being a penalty like they were first intended to be.  Bunkers are the only hazard I can think of that usually doesn't result in some sort of penalty. Great idea.

[paul cowley]

....just play it down, through the green....regardless.

[David_Tepper]

While I will acknowledge that bunker maintanence can be costly, I absolutely challenge the notion that grooming bunkers makes scoring "too easy."  

Last year on the PGA Tour, the leader in sand saves got up and down only 62% of the time. Only 6 players, out of 150+, got up and down at least 60% of the time. On average, a PGA Tour player drops a shot every other time he lands in a bunker.  

My guess is the average 5-10 handicaper is lucky to get up and down 1 in 5 chances. One in 10 is more likely an accurate figure.  

On the other hand, PGA Tour players do far, far better saving par if they are chipping or pitching off grass. Last year, 50 players saved par at least 60% of the time.      

Rake the bunker when you leave! Thank you.
 

[TEPaul]

"Why do we rake bunkers.........as opposed to just letting them go ...raking maybe once a week?"

In a word, the greatest reason of all is simply because golfers today demand it. It's all about their enormously locked in perception of avoiding unfariness. Luck--eg "iffiness" is more on the defensive in golf course maintenance than ever before in golf's history.

PVGC has never had rakes on the course and they probably never will. About five years there were footprints all over all their sand areas most of the time. Not any more!

[Steve Lang]

 

why me?.. because I was taught to leave it in the same or better condition i found it in..

we? collectively to keep a level playing field

not?  fantasy ( i should know because I'm delusional) and some sort of masochistic ideal of arbitrary challenge

[paul cowley]

Why do we equate 'fairness' with the real golf game....as opposed to what it once was.....maybe fairness occuring once a week.

[Joe Hancock]

We do it because there isn't any sheep shite left to clean up.......

Joe

[TEPaul]

Paul Cowley asked;

"Why do we equate 'fairness' with the real golf game....as oppossed to what it once was.....maybe fairness occuring once a week."

Paul:

Would you like an answer to that from me, or Max Behr?  

[paul cowley]

Tom...Max first, but with your follow up best.....

[paul cowley]

Joe , if there isn't any sheep shite left to clean up, why do we still need rakes?

[Brent Hutto]

Once a year I play several days of golf with some friends in Ohio and for a bonus event one afternoon we play nine holes of Match Play Madness. That means no touching the ball until it's in the hole. If you can't play it you concede the hole. The most unfair golf rules imaginable. No relief but then again no penalties except for the one about losing the hole if you touch the ball.

As a concession to modern superintendents we don't play stymies. If your opponent asks, you pick your ball up between the thumb and index finger of one hand until he has finished putting but no cleaning and no lining up the damned line on the ball with the hole.

We've seen people hit some remarkable shots out of drainage culverts, from under water, most anything to keep from conceding the hole.

[Brian_Gracely]

For those of you that never play courses where they don't rake the bunkers or don't plan on getting to Pine Valley anytime soon, I hope you'll be able to join us at Tobacco Road this fall for Dixie Cup II and experience some of the randomness of unraked sand areas.  

All the talk about landing in someone else's footprint in a bunker, but how many people carry a small bag/container of seed/sand to fill divots when they walk? (I saw it at only two courses last yeah....MPCC and RCC, and alot of people at RCC haven't adopted it yet).  I suspect the odds of someone landing in your footprint or your divot is fairly close.

[Joe Hancock]

Paul,

Bring back the sheep, I say! And leave the rakes for the home lawn.....let the golfers wear something besides alligator skin shoes with kilties.....or whatever those fancy little things were! Sheep shite on shoes, surely!

Joe

[Brent Hutto]

I do usually grab a seed/sand bottle when I play using my trolley, although not when I'm walking and shouldering the bag. In fact, I have in my possession an almost-empty bottle of seed/sand mixture from an recent GCA outing. I somehow forgot to return it before leaving the course and it rode all the way home in my golf bag. I'll either take it back next time I play there or I guess I could UPS it.

[paul cowley]

Joe....if you can set the match, I'll be your pard.

[Mark Brown]

If the sand is relatively firm and packed down it would be possible. After playing the golfer would use the foot rake and that's it. But not very many club members would go for it -- it's not fair -- like life!??!.....?

[Doug Siebert]

WOW!  Anyone who is curious about maintenance costs of bunkers should read that article James Bennett posted.  I was absolutely astounded at the figure given by the super where the man hours of labor for bunker maintenance was 50% higher than that required for greens maintenance!  If you want to reduce maintenance costs, it sounds like getting rid of superfluous bunkers is a damn good start.


Brain Gracely,

Several problems with your comparison of hitting into divots versus hitting into footprints.  One, I'm aiming for the area where divots are (fairway) much more often than I'm aiming at a bunker.  Two, footprints are bigger and much more numerous (at least 2x more numerous and usually 20x more) per shot.  Three, bunkers are often sloped so balls tend to collect in a far smaller area than the area of the bunker.  Especially if you are trying to get too cute from a deep bunker, where the ball will invariably roll back into whatever is the most difficult lie your failed attempt has produced!


One thing I'll add on this topic -- having sand that creates buried lies is exactly the sort of thing you want if you want to challenge good players while not hurting poor players as much.  Since the good players will be flying into the bunkers with a high trajectory and maximizing their odds of burying, and the worse the player the more likely his ball will be coming in low and hot, or rolling into the bunker and not burying...  Even in a flat and nondescript bunker a real buried lie offers all the challenge anyone needs.

[James Bennett]

Doug Siebert

astounding, isn't it how much time bunkers can take.  Even with that level of maintenance, are the average golfers happy?  that is, does the enjoyment of the golfer relate proportionally to the maintenance effort that goes into them?  If not, why do we do it?

Regarding the number of bunkers, I recall reading that the initial version of Augusta National had 22 bunkers, yes only 22.  Sounds like a tight-fisted scot was involved (I have scottish heritage, albeit a long way back).  Thank heavens.  And resulted in a course that people wanted to play, and play again and again, and tested the best and the average.

[Doug Siebert]

One of my favorite courses in the area just opened a few years ago and has a grand total of TWO bunkers.  And only one of those really comes into play.  It is a tremendous example of how to do a really fun, interesting and strategic golf course without requiring the use of sand (and not many trees or much water, either)

I figured it was to save money during construction, because I didn't think that bunker maintenance really amounted to much compared to everything else but it sounds like my naive assumption was way off the mark.  My other question of why have bunkers at all still remains, if you only have two, and only one is useful, it seems like you should just fill them both in and gain the notoriety and quirk bonus from having a solid course with no bunkers at all.

[paul cowley]

 I'd like to state in advance that I know its unlikely to happen but......

 All bunkers were originally waste areas and unmaintained .

 Somewhere down the line rakes were introduced so a player might level the area he had played from.

   Further down the line, bunkers began to be routinely raked by the maintenance staff and raking became an expected condition by players and clubs.

  Moving along, the maintenance of bunkers evolved to include manicured edges, increased and costly drainage techniques, and expensive sand [the whiter the better ], to achieve as pristine and immaculate playing surface as possible.

....I personally feel the later evolutionary stages have been detrimental from a cost and  aesthetic viewpoint and minimizes the hazards effectiveness as a part of the game.

 I cringe when a super or owner of a new course relays that they have just found a source real white stuff [even crushed white marble!] that can be imported from maybe only 300 miles away, and only costs 40$ a yard.........I say bring me a sample of local building sand to check out.

  I don't find playing from a footprint any more challenging than a half buried lie in the fluffy white stuff.

.....ditch the sandpros, let maintenace hand rake once a week, and let players touch up after themselves the rest of the time.

 

 

[paul cowley]

....and I wonder what Max Behr would have thought of the modern condition.....conjuring Max...Max, Max where are you ?

[Peter Galea]

Why do we rake bunkers?
Because it says to in the "Rules of Golf".
http://www.usga.org/playing/etiquette/etiquette.html

[JohnV]

I recently purchased a 1934 edition of the R&A's Rules of Golf and Decisions and in it they just say you should fill any holes you made in a bunker.  No mention of rakes.