[Forrest Richardson]

I recently visited and played at a fairly well known course located within 100 miles of the Sand Hills region of Nebraska. On a rather run-of-the-mill, yet solid par-5, I took a snapshot of nine laborers raking and replacing sand on minimalist bunkers — you know, those rough-edged, gnarley pits dug into the natural lay of the land.

There were five Gator maintenance carts scattered about the hole.

What say you? How many here believe minimalist, "natural" bunkers require little or no maintenance? Are any of you prepared to defened, with your mouse pinky at risk, the continual support of back-to-nature "natural bunkers" that are of "no" consequence to the care of a golf course?

[Tom_Doak]

Forrest:

Why, exactly, do you call rough-edged bunkers "minimalist" bunkers?  You can design and build any style of bunkers on a course that fits the ground.

And were they putting all that maintenance into the bunkers out of necessity, or out of choice?

The first "fancy" bunkers I built were at Black Forest in Michigan, which I visited the other day.  They've held up reasonably well for 16 years, and they don't even have nine guys total on their maintenance crew.

[Forrest Richardson]

Why? Perhaps not an exclusive definition. "Rough edged" bunkers are those with rough edges. Perhaps "minalmist" was not well defined, but that is not by my choice. I think most here would classify them as the bunkers you would find at Sand Hills and Bandon, and many places that have replicated great natural bunkers that have endured on older courses. When I think of minalmist bunkers I am usually thinking along the lines of design copy-cats, but on modern courses. Sometimes appropriate, but other times forced in order to create that "look."

I suppose the maintenance was elective at the situation I describe, but I am not sure. I have taken a lot of photos of Sand Hills rivelets and blow-outs — not on golf courses, but out in the country — they appear to move and morf by way of the weather and nature. I suspect that when some of these are designed into a golf hole the tendency is to preserve them at all cost — and not to allow neature to do her duty and move or distory them. Now always, but my guess is typically.

This is where raking, sand replacement and maintenance comes into play.

[Mike_Cirba]

Tom & Forrest,

One would think that one of the advantages of a wild, natural looking bunker would be that it is just permitted to evolve over time, with minimal maintenance.

I'm not sure that's true, or whether a place like Cuscowilla, for instance, doesn't have a large portion of their maintenance budget going towards keeping them looking good and playable.  

Looking at how much Cypress Point's bunkers have changed over time, prior to the bunker work in the past decade, I'm not sure that big bucks isn't required to keep them spiffy in windy and/or rainy climes.

At minimum, they at least seem to require quite a bit more care and feeding that the stereotypical Ross grass face, flat bottomed sand bunker.  

Are there ways to build them to reduce maintenance considerations?   I'm thinking that building them into the face of natural slopes helps and also considering the overall prevailing winds, but I'm mostly guessing.

[Adam Clayman]

Doesn't it depend on who oriented, and built them?

Poor orientation is probaly more common when someone builds to suit a look, versus, doing it properly in the first place.

[Chris Cupit]

I have rough edge bunkers and I guess you have to be committed to having a hazard play as a hazard even if it means you have to re-define players' expectations as to what a bunker "should" look like.

My brown bunkers are surrounded by shaggy zoysia (and some islands of grasses including lovegrasses, sedges and fecues) that can be 6-7 inches long in some places!  Sometimes you in the bunker and have a good sandy lie, other times you up against a lovegrass plant.  Sometimes you just miss the bunker and have an easy lie is an inch or so of zosia that has your ball teed up" for you and a foot away you may have been in 6 inch zoysia that is almost impossible to get the ball out of.

Runners and weeds have popped up in the bunkers and here and there we "clean up". Much to my chagrin we relented and do rake the bunkers on a daily basis  (I was for once a week max).

I guess I was happy to have a rough nasty bunker built and was willing to let it evolve (or devolve in some people's minds) however it was going to on its own.

Others may have "created" the perfect "natural, rough" bunker and then feel compelled to maintain that look forever.  I think that's a difference of philosophy more than an indictment of a bunker style itself.

[Ryan Farrow]

I can't imagine bunkers anywhere in the world that are harder to maintain than Oakmonts. Steep grass faced bunkers that need rotary mowed and fly-mowed by crews of 10+ people is about as bad as it gets. I think as long as the superintendent "gets it", there is very little maintenance involved in this rugged err.... natural, look. It also helps when some of the ruggedness is a product of keeping the native areas around the bunker intact and not trying to re-grow the native grasses that were once there.

[John Chilver-Stainer]

Forest,

Would that team of 9 be maintaining the shaggy bunkers on a daily basis or did you catch them on their monthly tidy up?

[Ray Richard]

The bunker sand installation detail often calls for 6 inches of compacted bunker sand uniformly placed throughout the bunker floor. Uniform sand depth is critical to the bunker playability, if the sand gets too thick, you will get a puffy lie, and if its only a few inches thick than the ball will bounce upon impact.

 This depth gets compromised by golfers, wind , rain and constant turning of bunker raking machinery. Insuring that surface rain flow from adjoining areas is diverted around each bunker is critical. These impacts combined with golfer demands for clean, raked, weed free bunkers require that you need to keep them pretty, hence the 9 person crew.

 Those shaggy faces and surrounds can get to be a maintenance issue also. The “fescues blowing in the wind” can be impacted by invasive weeds, insects, burrowing animals, insects, and golfers walking all over them. They require minimal amounts of water and fertilizer, and can be adversely impacted by irrigation over spray and chemical and fertilizer toxicity.

[Kyle Harris]

Forrest,

You probably should have asked the superintendent what exactly was going on with regard to those bunkers, especially the days before. Taking one 15 minute swipe out of the maintenance's crews day as an indictment of the bunkering is fairly short-sighted, IMO.

It may have nothing to do with daily maintenance, or even monthly. Maybe they replaced the sand for some reason, or had an irrigation line break around the bunker, or put in new tile drainage or....

well you get the idea.

[Forrest Richardson]

John — It is a fair question you ask. My understanding is that this is probably not the protocol every day. However, in order to push sand back to the slopes, the work is needed. The alternative is to allow the edges to get deeper over time, eventually cascading when they become too high. The shear amount of linear footage of bunker edge that needs sand replacement is lilkely the cause of this work.

Kyle — For the record, I like this look. No indictment is made, just a question posed about the maintenance. Over time we have heard (here) about minimalist approaches and how they reduce maintenance activity. This is not always the case, especially when there are few people like Chris who are willing to accept whatever nature dishes out.

[Kyle Harris]

Forrest,

I know you like the look (have read much of your opinions). Just saying, that such appearances can be misleading. Perhaps I am misdirecting a little frustration from working in the maintenance side for 2 years.

[Mike_Young]

Could we agree that shaggy ragged bunkers are best suited for areas where there is already sand and these areas are just exposed.....that is as natural as one can get.....in other words blowouts....if we have to think of 6 inches compacted sand etc then another type of bunker may be needed or one can expect to have maintenenace....I also like the look but here it is not natural....and if you end up with a the fabrics etc involved in bunker hype then you just have more of a maintenance concern....a shaggy natural bunker in an area with no sand wind etc is not a natural bunker....JMO

[Forrest Richardson]

Mike...sounds like Rodney King.

[Michael_Stachowicz]

Bunkers are not natural.  If left alone they would fill in the grass and weeds.  Sheep or water erosion may be the only chance for a "natural" bunker to exist.

The natural looking bunkers require the most work to maintain their appearance due to hand weeding vs. the ease of straight edging a traditional bunker.  It does not surprise me to see that many staff trying maintain that look.

[Mike_Young]

Rodney King?  Does he have a fan club....I have seen some of his plans and they had great detail....and his bunkering was some of the best...can we agree???

Michael,
I do think bunkers came about because the courses were built on a sand base and the bunker became a "natural" hazard.....for most courses they are not natural at all?  JMO

[ANTHONYPIOPPI]

Mike makes a wonderful point, which is not surprising because he's a superintendent. I think he now leads us to define what do we mean by minimalism? Once it is defined let's bury it and move on. I've had enough of minimalism, gnarly bunkers and "The Look." Bring back railroad ties and the manufactured look of Seth Raynor and Pete Dye.

Anthony

"Never use a big word when a filthy little one will do."
--Johnny Carson

[Forrest Richardson]

Then your name is, from now on, Tony Pio

[ANTHONYPIOPPI]

Hmmmm....

You make a good point.

TP

[Ron Farris]

Forrest,
We have had some pretty wild weather in the area lately.  The bunkers in many courses are full of water.  Now for the Sand Hills area.  I don't know too many courses that have 5 Gator type utilitiy vehicles let alone that many people on the maintenance crew.  Perhaps you were at Dismal River?
The Sand Hills GC has continually had issues with certain bunkers and tried various methods to keep the migration to a minimum.  Changes usually take place over the winter when it is dry and the wind blows like crazy.  

If you noticed, the bunkers at SH have firmed quite a bit in certain places, mostly the bottoms.  They actually require some raking to get enough fluff so you don't get too much bounce off a sand wedge. Heavy rain storms can also move sand around as well.  To keep a desirable shape of a bunker may require some attention.  

[Adam Clayman]

Anyone familiar with Dick Youngscap's philosophy on maintenance crews on the course during the season, would know this could never be SH.

As with Ron, The only course that came to my mind is DR.

[Ron Farris]

As a kid we would play in what people today call natural bunkers.  They would morph all the time and it was fun to jump off the edges of these "blowouts" as many of the local ranchers refer to them.  Bunker orientation is a big part of what happens to them in the winter, especially.  A green complex located in the wrong position could spell trouble as the bunker could migrate into the complex, build up of sand on the green from blowing sand and a movement of the bunker lip or edge.  There have been some soil stabilization efforts made using polymers and the like, but sometimes it is hard to fight Mother Nature.

[Forrest Richardson]

Fact is — bunkers need maintenance unless we relegate them to nature. Even the trend to reintroduce gnarley-edges, dug-out pits and scattered back-turf is a maintenance consideration. The trend does not necessarily mean less care or less cost.

Certainly there are exceptions, as there always are.

The two factors that overcome what may become heightened maintenance are; (1) the willingness to allow these bunkers to take on a form all their own, and (2) the buy-in that conditions, playability, and consistency can be varied and, at times, hard, soft, dirty, etc.

[Adam Clayman]

Forrest, Have you seen this?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lt7-YnG0Mhw

The respect of Joe & Richey Valentine and Merion are the most telling.

[Forrest Richardson]

I had not seen that one. The work there is very interesting, and it looks to be a terrific course taking shape.

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