George Wright Par 3 Bunker Work

[John Ezekowitz]

I enjoyed a great round at George Wright recently and noticed that they are doing significant bunker work on the fronting bunkers on 4 and 17, and on the short right bunker on 14. I should have snapped a few pictures, but it looks like the new bunker shaping will replace some of the sand faces with more rough. To my eye, it wasn't as visually pleasing as the steep sand faces and abrupt, short lips, but I am sure there are maintenance or other reasons to do it this way.

Does anyone have details on the work?

The new tee and tree clearing on 16 looks great.

Thanks,
John

[Cob Carlson]

Hi John: I reached out to our superintendent at George Wright GC, Len Curtin. Below find his response...



The steep dramatic faces we frequently see on the old bunkers in front of #17 green and the right front of # 4 are a combination of both original design, and the "redesign" that mother nature takes with wear and tear over time. Meaning that those bunkers most likely originally had grass faces much further down the front slopes. However due to foot traffic, erosion and back-edging from maintenance practices over 80 plus years, the grass line slowly over time has inched closer to the putting surfaces.


In addition, sand splash from 80 years of people hitting bunker shots out of them has raised the front lips of the bunkers facing the green an average of about 15 inches, which makes it an intimidating shot to say the least.  When we have rebuilt bunkers like these, we have found the sand splash interface on top of the original soil grade, and removed it to bring the slope back to original height and design. In most cases, Ross designed the front edges of the greens to roll off right into the bunkers. This surface drained the green, and made for a frightening down hill put to the hole, as you could roll it right off the green into the bunker.


It is true that Ross designed both flashed sand bunkers (made famous by Tillighast) and grass down bunkers in his career, with the vast majority being grass down. Due to a lack of credible photographic evidence as to which bunkers at GW were one or the other originally,  we are are making educated guesses as we go along.


Design criteria for new bunkers is Architectural/historic integrity, then playability, and finally maintainability in that order.


I hope this answers the question Cob.


Regards,
Len Curtin

[Jason Way]

I was there last month and got these pics of the work in progress:








I think grass-down Ross bunkers look great in contrast to rugged, natural surrounds like they have at GW.  Can't wait to see it when the work is finished. 

[Lynn_Shackelford]

Great stuff.  Thanks Cob.  Since I played there in July I watch this with great interest.  But I have two other thoughts:


1.  With the flag in the hole were they playing to the regular green with ongoing construction?


2.  I hope it finishes in a manner whereby a putt can roll into the green.  This I think is a great architectural feature.

[Brad Tufts]

Is there something going to be put in place so underhit tee balls don't bury 18" underground in the front left bunker on #17?   

[Amol Yajnik]

Great stuff.  Thanks Cob.  Since I played there in July I watch this with great interest.  But I have two other thoughts:


1.  With the flag in the hole were they playing to the regular green with ongoing construction?


2.  I hope it finishes in a manner whereby a putt can roll into the green.  This I think is a great architectural feature.

I haven't played the back nine at GW in a while, but for the bunker work on #4, they are playing that hole to the regular green instead of a temporary green with netting/fencing put up around the bunkers that are under construction.  The entire tee box is being redone on #4 as well, so there is an mat laid down over the forward tee boxes right now where everyone plays from.


I didn't think the bunkers on #4 or #17 were all that bad, but the bunker front right on #14 definitely needed work, the sand in there was pretty bad.  They have done some tree removal on that hole as well, I hope that it allows them to have some pin positions on the right side of the green on that hole.  Almost everyone now is in the center to the left side of the green since the trees (prior to clearance) would overhang down the right side and trying to hit a ball to the right side of the green without hitting a fade was bringing the limbs into play.

[Cob Carlson]

Good Morning Gents. Contacted Len Curtin regarding your questions and here are the answers...


Hi Cob,
Fairly simple answers to these questions.


[/size]1.  With the flag in the hole were they playing to the regular green with ongoing construction?
[/size]
1. - #17 green under construction has remained open during redesign phase and will remain open until the end of the season. The areas reconstructed (bunkers, collar,green surrounds) are ground under repair and closed to play.  Golfers may NOT retrieve their balls but will be re-imbursed by the golf shop for any balls left behind in the new work.


[/size]2.  I hope it finishes in a manner whereby a putt can roll into the bunker.  This I think is a great architectural feature.


2 - The greenside bunkers we reconstruct, many of them indeed do have that feature (# 16 green comes to mind) but that mostly depends on where the sand splash line interfaces with the original construction grade. We are trying our best to remove the sand splash and rebuild where the original soil grade is. In many cases this will result in possibly having putts roll off putting surfaces and down bunker faces. Sometimes it does not.


[/size]3. Is there something going to be put in place so underhit tee balls don't bury 18" underground in the front left bunker on #17?


3 -  the re-construction of left front bunker of # 17 was done to specifically avoid having balls be swallowed by deep, soft sand. We removed the 80 + years of original sands (sands were added over the years that were not golf specked sands) which were too deep and did not compact properly, resulting in severe fried egg lies. The new sand is USGA spec 2 mil bunker sand that compacts properly. We are using the same sand in all our new bunkers to create uniformity through the golf course. The other new bunkers we have built perform well regarding consistancy and not burying balls.