Is There a "Correct" Maintenance Meld (Practice) for Grassed Down Bunkers?"

[Ed_Baker]

Having been involved with several Ross restorations I am finding some common complaints once the bunkers have been back in play for 4 or more seasons.

There are two primary complaints that thus far have been universal,

1. The ball doesn't release off the faces consistently and come to rest in the "saucer shaped" bunker floor.
2. A "walking path" develops where the sand and grass intersect at the bottom of the bunker face creating essentially unplayable lies.

Yes, I know, bunkers are hazards, golf isn't fair, ect.

But, I hear these same to complaints constantly at my own club and several area clubs that have "restored" grassed down Ross bunkers.

The most common practice I have seen to try and address the unplayable lie issue is to edge the face and flash the sand up higher on the face. This is an ironic band aid to me as so much time and effort is spent in the restoration process to identify and duplicate the original footprints. Then in a few years time the edger comes out and repeats one of the practices that caused the need for total bunker restoration in the first place, 20 years of this edge and flash practice and you are right back where you started.

As far as the ball not releasing down in to the bunker floor, cut height and firmness would be the commonsensical approach, however, verdant green seems to out vote commonsense.

What is the fix ?
Is a fix needed?

Best,
Ed

[Sean Remington (SBR)]

Ed,

As you have pointed out these are probably the same issues that caused the original Ross bunkers to evolve the way they did in the first place. Both issues are solved if you take away the grass face and have a higher edged bunker with a sand flash. Doing this to a bunker that wasn't originally designed for a high face creates other problems and so the cycle goes.  I know this is not a practical solution and I am in favor of the restoration work 100%. We must always keep in mind that things were done the way they were in the 20's and 30's for reasons and sometimes the evolution of things to the modern day happened for reasons.

Now that you have the restored bunkers you need some real time answers.

1. The ball does not release down the face. Depending on what part of the country your in and what kind of grass you have your Superintendent may or may not be able to mow the grass faces short enough to always allow the ball to roll down into the sand. Also, does your Super have the irrigation he needs to maintain these areas? How about the additional workers for hand trimming and handwatering etc.?  I would also counter with a question. Why should a player expect the ball to always end up rolling down the face into the sand? I would need a Ross expert (Brad Klien) to tell me that this was the case. These are hazards and it just may be that Mr. Ross employeed this design and construction technique so that the effective size of the hazard was larger than just the surface of the sand area.

2. The walking path. Educate golfers to always enter and exit the bunkers from the low side. Also, maintenance activities need to be done from within the bunker. I believe most of the walking paths are created by the bunker raking crew that walks around the outside edge of the bunker to pull up the sand. Work from with in the bunker and stay of the face as much as possible. I have also seen paths created by mowers that run in the same tracks everytime it mows. This normally means that more hand mowing and trim work is needed.

Good luck.
Sean

[Dan_Lucas]

I could be worse.

At Crooked Stick in Indy Pete Dye has left a 1-2' flat area at the base of every bunker slope that keeps balls coming off the slopes from getting in the sand. My host explained that Pete thinks the sand is too easy for the big boys, so he does everything possible  to make it harder for them.

Playing uphill off a flat lie out of 3-4" rough with one foot in the bunker is about as tough as it will get. That is my one complaint with Crooked Stick (for someone with a lot less skill than "the big boys").

[Steve Curry]

Ed,

I really noticed the foot path, here


it seems to me a function of having just a tad too much flat before the sand.  One real trick to keeping the faces reactive is to keep them dry and thin.  This requires an acceptance of the look.  If "verdant green" is a must then pump up the budget and mow them low, treat them with pesticides, hand water and so on.

Cheers,
Steve

[TEPaul]

ED:

We have the same problem since our restoration. This year the complaints have gotten bad. I've talked to quite a lot of people about what could be done to correct the problem of balls hanging up on the grass faces and there doesn't seem to be any real fix other than redoing the bunker faces and sand flashing them up.

Mowing the grass faces lower will not work, in my opinion, if you have the type grasses we do on the faces (probably the same mix you have---eg fescue and blue). Even if you mow to less than an inch (which will probably kill the grass faces ) the ball will hang up since the grass tends to grow straight up.

The fix we're attempting to use right now with the complainers is to tell them they're just going to have to live with their balls hanging up on the grass faces unless they hit it somewhere else.  

[Bill_McBride]

I just walked Mountain Brook Club's Brian Silva-restored Donald Ross course in Birmingham AL and saw the 2004 bunker restoration work they did.  It looks really good right now as the grass faces are quite vertical down into the sand and I didn't see any balls hang up at all.  The grass is cut to about 1-1/2".  I'll post some photos and a review/tour next week when I get home.  

Mountain Brook is a quirky Ross shoehorned nicely into 100 or so acres, it's really worth a visit.

[Anthony_Nysse]

Being on a Pete Dye club, we have alot of steep, grassed faced bunkers here-My advise-Tell them tough, that's golf.(in a professional way, of course! ) It could be worse, it could be plugged in a sand flashed bunker!!

Tony Nysse
Asst. Supt.
Long Cove Club
HHI, SC

[Ed_Baker]

Thanks for the responses gentlemen.

Steve, the photo of the "walking path" is a nice bullet to have in your gun as an example of what can happen when the restoration honeymoon is over. Also, if we pump the budget up any more we will have more grounds crew employees than we do members.

Tommy Paul, I have taken exactly the position with the complainers that you have. But even God lifts the famine,locusts, and pestilence edicts after seven years, these f...... complainers have made it their lifes work, they are as relentless as a bucket full of inflamed hemorhoids and just as irritating.

As I stated in the original post, those 2 complaints have been universal, Salem,Winchester,Plymouth, and Metacomet are four examples that come immediatly to mind, each of those clubs were 1 to 3 years ahead of us doing bunker restorations, Plymouth is coming up on 10 years now.

I also asked in the original post, "is a fix needed?"
My answer is no.

But if you were one of the members that was instumental in bringing restoration to your course, I suggest that you carry a wad of cotton around with you every time you play golf to stick in your ears. Because just as surely as you will hit some lousy shots, the legion of bunker bashers will find you to complain.

By the way, the President of the local chapter of bunker bashers is ususally the same guy that wanted to turn the chef in to a eunoch because his lamb chops were served without mint jelly, he is also married to a woman that looks like your grandfather.. after he was dead.. generally not happy people carrying around a boatload of self inflicted baggage.
Long live the hanging lie.

Cheers,
Ed

[Mark_Fine]

Ed,
Are you sure the "restored" bunkers had grass all the way to the floors in the first place?  
Mark