Bunker evolution of Pinehurst #2...

[Phil_the_Author]

In my readings I came across an article in the February 1918 issue of Golf Digest. It stated that during a tournament held at Pinehurst #2 that the medalist, "carefully steered the many bad shots past 287 of the 290 traps that Donald Ross has planted on the No. 2 course, or (as I prefer to call it now) the championship course."

I reread it sveeral times thinking that he was refering to plsy over a number of rounds but that isn't thecase. He was speaking of the "qualifying round" prior to the "match-play event."

I must confess that i don't know much about the creation & evolution of #2 & was quite surprised to read that Ross put 290 bunkers on an 18 hole course!

Can someone help me here? how did the course evolve from 290 bunkers to many, many less today?

[Patrick_Mucci]

Phillip,

If we've learned one thing it's that the citation of a single source doesn't establish the accuracy/certainty of the statement.

The reference to 290 bunkers is likely to have been made in the context of the entire property, all of the golf courses, and not just # 2.

290 bunkers on # 2 equates to 16 per hole, and when you factor in the par 3's it's probably closer to 17-18, and as such, almost an impossibility.

[Tom_Doak]

I've never heard a number like that before, but I don't think it's impossible.  Pinehurst #2 was a very open sandy property to start with ... if there were a lot of sandy patches out in the rough where the trees are today, you could get to 290 bunkers in a hurry.

Imagine if someone counted every single bunker at Whistling Straits!

[Patrick_Mucci]

Tom Doak,

You're not going to equate the sites, the architects or the financial times, the frugality of Tufts family and Ross versus the extravagance of the Kohlers and Dye, are you ?

290 bunkers on an 18 hole golf course in the scrub pines of North Carolina ?

Just think of the maintainance costs ?

[T_MacWood]

Phil
Are you sure it was Golf Digest?

[Phil_the_Author]

Tom,

Good pickup... It was in the February 1918 Golf Illustrated, not Golf Digest. It can be found on p.23, midway down in par.3, in the article "The Month at a Glance" by "W.H.F." Thanks.

Pat, I am not just accepting something based upon one mention. I have actually found another reference about 7 years later that states there being more than 200 bunkers on Ross' Pinehurst #2.

I honestly have no idea as to what the original design was, how he tweaked it from a hazard standpoint over the years and if there was 1, 290 or any other number in-between of  bunkers on the course as originally designed.

Tom Doak's assessment that it may have been the sand everywhere that caused the writer to miscount or view it as such... I don't know.

Like you, the number jumped out at me as an impossibility, and then I found the second 200+ reference.

That is why I was asking if anyone knew the architectural history and evolution of the course.

[TEPaul]

Ross's Aronimink may be a good example of why a much higher bunker count sometimes happens.

The original bunker scheme at Aronimink was drawn by Ross himself and called for about 80 bunkers on the course. When the course was built with around 200 individual bunkers most of them were simply sets of 2s and 3s in the same places and of the same "set" size as most of Ross's individual bunkers.

Noone really knows why Ross's 80 single bunkers were so extensively broken up into numerous sets of 2 and 3 multi-sets of bunkers but they were in original construction.

Some, like Ron Prichard, speculated they may've been done that way simply because it may've offered better access and egress from the sand (one could walk in and out of the individual bunkers using the grass divisions). As is always the case with golf courses, maintenance cost (raking) has always been of some concern.

And there may be another reason. It seems that the more bunkers a golf course had back then was some indication it was a better golf course or a more expensive one to create which was percieved to be some indication of the quality of the golf course.

[TEPaul]

There is also a remark by William Flynn that would seem to support the theory of why more bunkering rather than less bunkering was sometimes called for. In one of the USGA Green Section bulletins in the 1920s Flynn remarked that the way he would create a championship course, for instance, eg a more difficult course is to simply bunker it differently (much more difficult bunkering schemes) than if the club asked him for a course that was say, just to be a more relaxing membership type golf course.

If given the opportunity Flynn even subscribed to the theory that a course should be in play for a few years to determine better where the club wanted bunkering to be placed. He also wrote this in one of the USGA's Green Section Bulletins in the 1920s.

This was certainly an architectural design theory that a Herbert Leeds subcribed to at Myopia as did William Fowmes at Oakmont.

[Patrick_Mucci]

Phillip, TEPaul & Tom Doak,

There's another reason why I don't think that # 2 had 290 bunkers.

Aronomink, Oakmont and Pine Valley were all designed to be private courses of "championship" caliber.

Pinehurst was intended to be a public resort, with a hotel clientele, and in those days it was really a distant destination resort, with many arriving by train.  It was also a seasonal, not a year round resort.

290  bunkers would hardly seem to present a guest friendly golf course.

Resorts want repeat business, they don't want to beat up their guests, never to have them return again.  290 bunkers would be a daunting if not overwhelming challenge, especially for women.

Hollywood, which was intended to be a "championship" golf course, had about 200 bunkers, and from the looks of the early aerials, it looked almost unplayable for good golfers.  Increasing the bunker count by 50 % would seem to make it even more impossible to play, especially for resort types.

Perhaps they had 290 bunkers planned for all of the resort courses.

[cary lichtenstein]

I heard the number at Whistling Straits is 420 bunkers, don't know if it is true, but that's what they quoted me when I was first there.

[Craig Disher]

The 1922 drawing of #2 shows over 140 bunkers on #2 - a much shorter course than the current one. The 290 figure probably comes from the medalist going around #2 twice.

Although none of the holes had 16, several had a dozen or more. This was probably the inspiration for the new #4.

[Mark_Fine]

I don't know about Pinehurst #2, but Oakmont at one time had as many as 350 bunkers.  

The Straits Course has give or take between 1200 and 1500 bunkers.  The yardage book only shows about 1250 but the guys in the pro shop say there are more than that.
Mark

[RSLivingston_III]

Has anyone seen the aerial of Brook Hollow ? It was done by Tillinghast roughly the same time as #2. The high count bunkering might have been a teens thing in response to some of the tech advances prior to the ball limit in 1921. I do know that driving irons became very popular during that decade and the players felt they needed the accuracy to keep the ball in play and out of trouble.
At Brook Hollow there were bunkers lining both side of the fairway basically replacing the rough.
Hmmmmm. Maybe this is what the current game needs, on "championship courses". Legions of nasty deep bunkers that will exact a stroke from a missed shot to the fairway.