Pebble Beach's new bunkers

[Matt_Cohn]

I walked Pebble Beach on Monday afternoon and noticed several new and changed bunkers (within the past 2 years or so).

Most noticeable are the ones left of #15 fairway, including a deep pot within the left side of the fairway, as well as three huge fairway bunkers on the right side of #3, going across the hillside.

Currently #1 plays to a temporary green while the bunkers around that green are reshaped.

I'm not a Pebble expert but I don't feel that the new ones fit the course - in terms of shape/look, their placement (isn't right on #3 already bad enough?) and and also potentially their bright-white color. My understanding is that Arnold Palmer and the Pebble Beach staff are both involved in the project.

Perhaps others with a better feel for the course's past and present can chime in with their opinions.

[Tommy_Naccarato]

Matt,
Isn't that work Fazio's? He is the Company Consulting GCA.

[Rich Goodale]

I blame Tommy Naccarato, as he let shivas on this site, and it was shivas' idiotic idea to put those bunkers there.  In fact, it was so idiotic that the idiots at Pebble Beach Corp. listened to him!

[Adam Clayman]

Finer points they are not.

The hillside on the right of three?

OMG!

[Joel_Stewart]

Matt,
Isn't that work Fazio's? He is the Company Consulting GCA.

Its not Fazio, its Arnold Palmer himself, and the changes are approved by the board of directors.  He is trying to update Pebble, make it better.

[Eamon Lynch]

There are also plans to add a bunker just over the trees along the left side of #3, move the left fairway bunker on #4 slightly to the right and lengthen it, and add a bunker at the top of the hill on #6, on the right side. Part of Palmer's changes in advance of the 2010 US Open.

[Jon Spaulding]

This reminds me of adding flair to the people on Pee-Chee folders in grade school....except that the people doing it to PB should know better.

First a mustache on the Mona Lisa....now a tattoo on the lower back . Might as well be a bullseye

[Sean Leary]

The bunker left on 15 are cool looking bunkers but very much out of place at PB, IMO.

[Matt_Cohn]

Why would a course add bunkers to prepare for the US Open?

Won't the approach from right of #3, for example, be much easier from a shallow fairway bunker than it would be from 5" rough?

Yet it will be tougher for the average resort player.

Hmph.

[TEPaul]

"I blame Tommy Naccarato, as he let shivas on this site, and it was shivas' idiotic idea to put those bunkers there.  In fact, it was so idiotic that the idiots at Pebble Beach Corp. listened to him!"

Richard the Magnificent:

It appears you think ideas generated from the mind of Shivas are idiotic.

I see.

This must be one of those infrequent days you are actually thinking clearly.

[Scott_Burroughs]

Matt,

The new bunkers on #15 can be seen from the ground in this post:

http://www.golfclubatlas.com/forums2/index.php?board=1;action=display;threadid=29399;start=msg568379#msg568379

[Mike_Cirba]

Why those are the absolute BEST bunkers I've ever seen anywhere on any hole on any course in the entire world.

[Tommy_Naccarato]

Huge Puffy Wilson Lives.......Oh, and he's bi-coastal now........

Now that I think of it, those bunkers look like EXACT duplicates of the bunkers out in front of the Arnold Palmer Restaurant in La Quinta.....

[Adam Clayman]

Did the CCC OK these alterations?