The Perfect Bunker

[Mike Hendren]

I have copied Ray Richard's photograph of the cross bunker at Myopia Hunt's 11th hole below.  Thanks to Ray for posting it.  I find it immensely appealing.  WHY MUST BUNKERS BE MORE WHATEVER THAN THIS?



It's:
easily maintained
sufficiently deep
strategic
negotiable
"worth" a half stroke


I'm tired of big fancy bunkers.

Mike

[Bill_McBride]

Looking at the green pad and current greensize, it may have been a greenside bunker at one time!

[Jeremy Rivando]

For the purpose it's serving the Myopia bunker is an excellent cross bunker no doubt, however, it's a bunker and they should always come in different sizes, shapes, depths and edges.  I'm not into the large "fancy" bunkers being referred to either but large or small, narrow or wide, is preferred at times based on the strategy, the visuals, and the lay of the land.  Bunkers have no rules and it's an opportunity for the designer to impress upon us their artistic sense.

[Andy Hughes]

Bogey, while that bunker may be just right for that hole, can you imagine a bunker such as Hell being like that?  There would not be the sense of fear, nor the thrill of accomplishment. (it would also never have been called Hell  )

[Mike Hendren]

Andy,

Does any decent player ever hit a ball into Hell Bunker anymore?  I'lll bet the one pictured gets more action.

Perhaps someone can post a photograph of the trench bunker fronting the 17th green at North Berwick's West Links - a deeper cousin to the subject.

Mike

[Andy Hughes]

  Yeah, that's likely true, sadly.  Nor is Hell nearly as scary looking as it used to be, at least to me, with it's more manicured, straight-edged look.
But imagine how it used to play!

[Joe Hancock]

Jeremy,

You have a lot of nerve answering Mike's question so logically....

Well put, and no one pattern or method is sufficient for every property.

Imagine a bunch of those scattered around Sand Hills.....

Joe

[RJ_Daley]

Yes Jeremy, very well stated, IMO. 

Mike, the other factor in bunkers is texture.  Along with Jeremy's comments of size and shape deviations to fit locations and locational strategy, the texture is variable and often times the material don't fit the style or shape or location due to either not being able to regionally source the right sand particle size and shape, or too cheap of a budget to get it right... etc.

[Ray Richard]

This overhead shot illustrates the orientation of this bunker in relation to the fairway centerline.

[Mike Hendren]

  Bunkers have no rules and it's an opportunity for the designer to impress upon us their artistic sense.

I agree, but all too often they impose rather than impress.  Too often bunkers are utilized today to disguise indifferent architecture (i.e., lipstick on a pig).  I guess I'm just a bunker minimalist with little appreciation for artsy bunkering. 

Joe, are you actually saying that some of the bunkers at Sand Hills were "manufactured?"

Mike

[Joe Hancock]

Mike,

What do you define an artsy bunker as? In the aerial that Ray just posted, there is a bunker at the 9 o'clock position. Is it artsy in comparison to the pencil/ cross bunker initially posted?

Joe

[Norbert P]

"If I can do it, it aint art."  Red Green

The Perfect Bunker ?!

Spoken by David Allan Coe . . .

Well, a friend of mine named Steve Goodman wrote that song,
and he told me it was the perfect country and western song.
I wrote him back a letter and I told him it was not the
perfect country and western song because he hadn't said
anything at all about momma, or trains, or trucks,
or prison or gettin' drunk. Well, he sat down and
wrote another verse to this song and he sent it to me and
after reading it I realized that my friend had written the
perfect country and western song. And I felt obliged to include
it on this album. The last verse goes like this here:

Well, I was drunk the day my momma got out of prison,
And I went to pick her up in the rain.
But before I could get to the station in the pick-up truck,
She got runned over by a damned old train.

"You Never Even Call Me By My Name"

[Mike Hendren]

Slag,

You don't have to call me darlin', darlin'.

Joe,

That bunker IS artsy.  It belongs at Doral compared to the others in the photograph.

Mike

[RJ_Daley]

I agree, but all too often they impose rather than impress.

That is a good observation, as well.  It just seems so arbitrary.  It is the old, "I know it when I see it" sort of concept as to if it imposes or impresses.  

A course like Yeamans Hall or CC of Charleston, we might be uncomfortable seeing artsy fartsy.  Maybe depth and placement are factors, but squigly and snarly don't cut it there.  Yet, at Cuscowilla, it seems right.  They are site/style dependant.  (Even though one knowledgable fellow we know says Cusco's don't agronomically or engineer-wise function too well)  

We love MacKenzie, we love Raynor.  Not much in common on bunker styles there...

[Joe Hancock]

Slag,

You don't have to call me darlin', darlin'.

Joe,

That bunker IS artsy.  It belongs at Doral compared to the others in the photograph.

Mike

OK, so one of your definitions of an artsy bunker is edges that move in and out. Anything else?

I agree that the bunker I pointed out is the sore thumb on that aerial...of course, I have no idea how it presents itself from the golfers perspective.

Joe

[Mike Hendren]

Come on Dick.  It doesn't really seem right at Cusco.  We've just been told by the cognoscenti that it's right.

[Norbert P]

It only works in concept. It only enlightens in that it forces the imagination to replace it with something in its stead.  Adjectives of description should be positive, not what I'm thinking about that slash of the wrists.

" . . . I'll hang around as long as you will let me." DAC

[RJ_Daley]

Mike, who do you love best?    MacKenzie or Raynor.  I thought you loved the same, both men...!  (yes, I am syntaxlexic)   ?

[Mike Hendren]

Mike, who do you love best?    MacKenzie or Raynor.  I thought you loved the same, both men...!  (yes, I am syntaxlexic)   ?

Dick, you know I'm a Ross man.  He could do more with less and saw no need to resort to theatrics.

Mike

[Matt Waterbury]

Something makes me think that green used to be a lot bigger...

[Bill_McBride]

Something makes me think that green used to be a lot bigger...

Matt, ditto.  See post #2.

[Tom_Doak]

I've seen artsy-fartsy bunkers on a Raynor course -- the von Hagge redesign of Camargo, done in 1963 and lasting until the late 1980's.  May they rest in peace.

[Ryan Farrow]

I have copied Ray Richard's photograph of the cross bunker at Myopia Hunt's 11th hole below.  Thanks to Ray for posting it.  I find it immensely appealing.  WHY MUST BUNKERS BE MORE WHATEVER THAN THIS?



It's:
easily maintained
sufficiently deep
strategic
negotiable
"worth" a half stroke


I'm tired of big fancy bunkers.

Mike

Because most of us went to a DESIGN school. We, along with every other sane person on this planet, like to look at things that are pleasing to the eye. Your question is just as silly as why we all don't settle for ugly looking women?

[Bryan Izatt]

Andy,

Does any decent player ever hit a ball into Hell Bunker anymore?  I'lll bet the one pictured gets more action.

Perhaps someone can post a photograph of the trench bunker fronting the 17th green at North Berwick's West Links - a deeper cousin to the subject.

Mike

Is this the one you had in mind?  One of several such on North Berwick.

[Sean_A]

The perfect bunker is the one which if a player is too cautious in avoiding he finds himself in a worse position then the bunker he was trying to avoid.  A bunker in and of itself has limited value unless it is worked into the strategy of the other elements of the hole in such a way as to make consider several options.  Needless to say, not all holes call for the perfect bunker because it isn't desirable (not to me anyway) for every hole to be perfect - whatever that is.

Ciao