Bunker Collars

[Tim Gavrich]

Forgive me if this issue has been covered recently...

Whenever I see bunkers that are completely surrounded by fairway, I wonder to myself why they almost always seem to have an edge of rough around them.  Is this usually because it is too cumbersome to mow the grass around the bunkers to fairway height?  I personally think that a seamless transition from fairway to sand is more interesting and strategic (whatever that truly means).  It a rough buffer between short grass and sand meant just to protect worse players from having to hack away at the sand?

The 4th hole here at Pawleys Plantation has three centerline bunkers in the landing area.  More often than not, I'll hit a drive straight at them, but it'll get hung up in the rough and won't make it to the bunkers.  Not that I'm upset about saving a shot, but I feel as though players get away with a bad shot a little too easily in such situations.

Cheers.

--Tim Gavrich

[Dan Herrmann]

Tim,
I've been wondring about this too.  In fact, our course, only 4-5 years old, has some rough around the centerline bunkers on several holes.

I'm guessing here - but is it a maintenance issue?  I'm guessing it'd be tough to keep a fairway <--> bunker maintained properly.

[Ryan Farrow]

It is a maintenance issue as well as an aesthetic one. Ideally the end facing the tee should be mowed to fairway height so drives will roll into the sand and not get hung up in the rough. It should also be a simple edge so a fairway mower can cut right up to the edge eliminating the need to mow it by hand with a fly-mower. I kind of prefer some fescue/native grasses on the back edge of the bunker.

[Bill_McBride]

This gets mentioned a lot on GCA.com, it's a real lost opportunity.  I started a thread just a few days ago on how long grass in front of bunkers can reduce their impact on misdirected shots.

http://www.golfclubatlas.com/forums2/index.php?board=1;action=display;threadid=30256

[Ray Richard]

Fairways are mown with reel mowers that need to be kept sharpened and perfectly adjusted to cut. To cut a fairway edge into a bunker you will need to overlap a few inches into the bunker and introduce sand particles into the reel, causing dull blades. You can actually hear the reel and the sand grinding against the bedknife ( the flat cutting surface that the reel rubs against). If you do this several times you will start to scalp the turf because the reel will bounce along the bunker edge, because it is not riding 100 % on firm ground.

[Dan Herrmann]

Ray,
That's great information - the kind that helps all of understand GCA and maintenance procedures.

Thanks!