Why doesn't anyone name bunkers any more? Or do they?

[CHrisB]

Principal's Nose, Hell's Half Acre, Devil's A-hole, Cardinal, Scabs, Spectacles, Church Pews, Coffins, Beardies...great names for some great hazards. But most of these hazards were named years and years ago.

Why doesn't anyone name bunkers any more? Or do they?

What modern bunkers (if any) have names? Which of them should have names? And what would you name them?

(If I had my own course I'd give a name to every hole and every hazard.)

[RJ_Daley]

Maybe they ran out of appropos names.  Modern courses having bunkers named like: "the sandy experience at the fields of Ivy" or "the Pepsi Cola bunker at drygulch acres" won't cut it.

Some architecture would have to have distinctions like the 5ft oval next to 3 green, and the 12ft oval at 6 green, or the big oval on the right side of 8 fw.

[JESII]

Devlin's billabong!

[peter_p]

Unfficially named bunker in front of 13 at Reserve Vineyards (South) is Willie Mays because it catches all my shots. Now I find out that the yardage markers in the fairway are wrong.

[PThomas]

I have plenty of names for the hazards I encounter, but because of my fine Christian upbringing I shall not share them here

I also think it's cool when they have names

Pete  Dye still names each of his holes

[rjsimper]

Funny you should mention this - I just played Los Serranos North, a little public kick-around in the Inland Empire in So. Cal and though this was my first time playing it, I believe they just re-did the bunkering on the 16th hole - an uphill par 5, with two enormous sod-faced bunkers (that look kinda cool, but are completely out of character with the rest of the course)   - from the fairway, you can see at least 15 layers of sod in the face - once I got closer, IN the actual face, there are signs with the bunker's names...one was like Big Jake and the other was Sir Pancho or something like that.

Hilarious, I thought, that they actually put the sign in the bunker to give it a name.

[PThomas]

I say we start naming some of them!

I hereby christen the tiny bunker that is left and long of Ravisloe's par 3 15th "Devil's Asshole Jr."!

[Mark_Rowlinson]

There's a modern course near Warrington here in the UK which has holes named after Gulliver's Travels.  It is pretentious in the extreme, particularly given that it is bounded a factory estate, a housing estate and a motorway.  'Chimney View' and 'Carbon Monoxide Poisoning' might have been more appropriate!

[Michael Dugger]

Doak's shoe at #2 PD

They call the deep pit on #15 at BD the Devil's you know what  (copy cat)

[Ian Andrew]

The are still architects wo do use names for holes and hazards. I provided the gaelic names at Osprey valley (Heathlands). The bunkers were named with typcal names like "Pandimonium" on the 15th and "the Coffins" on the 4th green. But the fairway bunker on #1 was named "Bobo" for a joke played on site. The names stuck, but the plan with the bunker names was never developed, although some of those names can still be found on a few old drawings.

I have named all the holes on every project I worked on, including Muskoka Bay. Some clients like them and use them, others do not, in the end it's there choice.

[CHrisB]

Modern bunkers that should have names (if they don't already):

Left of #4 green Sand Hills
Right of #13 green Pacific Dunes
Right of #18 green Pacific Dunes
Short of #14 green Arcadia Bluffs

[Garland Bayley]

Unfficially named bunker in front of 13 at Reserve Vineyards (South) is Willie Mays because it catches all my shots. Now I find out that the yardage markers in the fairway are wrong.

So you broke down an bought one of those lasering devices! Don't worry, I won't tell anyone.

[archie_struthers]

 

We named the huge bunker on the right side of the 5th at Twisted Dune the "Bishops' Purse". Think the name is apropos, particularly with my Medieval thinking.

rj

[John Pflum]

Modern bunkers that should have names (if they don't already):

Right of #18 green Pacific Dunes

Ah, now that bunker is just plain evil.  It must have been placed there my a criminally inclined mastermind sadist.  

 

[Nyk Pike]

Great topic Chris. Maybe we should just name them anyway. I know that when I was touring Mr. Miller around Pacific Dunes for some commissioned work that he named the bunker right of the 18th green the "Wind Hole" bunker. I always called it "The Grand Canyon". The bunker/waste area onthe left side of the 18th fairway has been called many names, most have settled on "Mr. Big" just because of the size (over an acre). I think the area right on 13 should be called "The Circus" in honor the property's past. Local off-roaders had paths across the PD property and it was known through the area as "The Circus", plus if you ever get stuck up high on that dune it is a circus act to get to and extract your ball. The bunker back left of 16 green has been dubbed "The Chang" in honor of local players Gary and Sunny Chang and their frequent challenges to get out of that pit. I've heard talk that the bunker 80 to 100 yards from the green on 15 was called the "Sheriff Badge" because of its builder, Steve Underdown, and it is roughly shaped like a star at opening. Steve is a local like Shoe and I think part of it was getting in on the concept of the "Shoe Bunker" i.e. build it, name it. The bunker that eats into left side of #7 green has been called "The Hoover", "The Oreck", & "The Bissell" for its ability to vacuum balls off the green. I,ve always called the bunker guarding the right of #8 green "Woking", from Doak's reference to the hole inspiring the lone bunker.

On the same topic of naming bunkers, why aren't landing areas and parts of courses named as much. I've always liked the term the Elysian Fields and the reference. One area we've named at the resort are holes 4, 5, 6, & 7 at Bandon are named "The Gauntlet" for their ability to make you feel like you've gone through battle. There is a little bump about 210 yards off the tee on the right side of #7 fairway on PD that repels balls heading for junk back into the fairway that is refered to as the "Jones Bump". Don Jones was a buddy and had the uncanny ability to hit that area almost everytime we played.

Well that's jus a few of the names I've had fun with. I'll try to post some more but I've got to get to the course. Beautiful day, chilly morning but warming to 60+ with a slight breeze from the north.

Keep the blade square- Nyk

[peter_p]

Garland,
No I haven't. Someone else did. Actually, it's the 150 pole that is wrong. Since I'm not a slave of exact yardage, I use the 150 pole as an estimator and don't waste time looking for sprinkler heads unless they're right there.

[Tom_Doak]

We named a lot of the bunkers at Pacific Dunes, but because I still haven't finished my book, they aren't in the lexicon yet.

A few of our favorites:

The high blowout to the right of #13 is Michael's Playground, because from the time I first saw it I thought my son would have a great time climbing around up there and jumping off the top.  And when I brought him out there, that's exactly what he did.

The huge blowout in the middle of #18 was named "der Keiser" by Jim Urbina.  The bunker on the right of that fairway is called "Sleepy Hole" because Jim fell asleep in the trackhoe there one morning after taking me to the airport for a 5 am flight.

The bunker off the second tee is called the Velodrome because the first time Jim and I saw it, someone had run laps around the inside of it on a 4-wheeler.  There is a bunker to the left of #7 that the caddies have taken to calling the "Raisin Bran" bunker because it takes most players two scoops to get out, and there are little crumbles of hardened soil eroded into it from time to time.  I named the bunkers on the eighth green Paton and Low, after the designers of Woking who were the inspiration for that hole.  And at the back left of #16 is the "Josh Pit," because Josh Lesnik used to always go into that bunker when we were playing in the early days.

[Michael Robin]

How 'bout the "Canyon Bunker" on the right side of the 8th at Stone Eagle.

[Lawrence Largent]

The huge greenside bunker on the 17th hole atThe Honors course is called "Big Bertha".

Lawrence

[Tom_Doak]

The Stone Eagle bunker needs a more foreboding name, like the Black Hole or something.  We tried but never could agree on one.

We have named occasional bunkers on other courses, too, or had them named for us.  My favorite was the deep pot behind the seventh green at High Pointe.  The original pro, Doug Grove, asked me one day whether it was an "abandoned well" or something, and that name stuck.  A lot of days people don't even notice it if the pin is near the front.

The nice thing about naming bunkers is that you aren't forced to try and name them all.  When we first started I tried to name each hole of my courses, but I realized that we were stretching to come up with a good one for some of the holes, and if they aren't good they defeat the whole purpose of the exercise.  St. Andrews' holes took generations to name ... but marketing guys aren't willing to wait that long today.

[Sean Leary]

How about the "Oh Shit"  hidden bunker back left of PD number four.  Named after what I said when I thought I hit a good shot in there but when I arrived it had rolled through the green through the swale and down into that bunker. Never know it was there although I had played the course 10 times.

[David Kelly]

We've named a few bunkers at Rustic Canyon. The small fairway bunker on the right side of #2 is "The Bathtub", one of the fronting bunkers on #8 is "The Beast" which was named after we watched "Beauty and the Beast's" Ron Perelman take a number of shots to extricate his ball from its depths, and the fariway bunker on the right side of #13 is called "New Jersey" because of its shape.

[CHrisB]

Nyk and Tom D,
Thanks for sharing the names of some of the bunkers at Pacific Dunes. Pretty interesting that the course design team, local players, caddies, and others have all been in on naming them, and that different people have different names for the same bunkers. Makes me wonder what some of the alternate names for famous hazards were before everyone settled on the names as they are known today.

[Brock Peyer]

I don't think that people name them anymore because it can't get any better than the Devil's A%$hole.

[Bill Wernecke Jr]

The best name that I ever heard of for a set of bunkers:

I am not certain of the course, might be Engineers on L I.

It is a par 4 with a set of irregular bunkers inset on the slope below the elevated green.

It is called "Eleanor's Teeth" after the former First Lady.