Best Bunkerless Holes

[Paul Gray]

And pick your favourite hole at Royal Ashdown Forest I guess.

[Jason Way]

I played the Wolf Course at Paiute Resort this week, and I found myself musing about bunkerless holes.  The reason being that I consistently like Pete Dye's quirky little ground features more than his bunkers.  I would sign up to play a bunkerless Pete Dye course for sure. 


This is a cool thread that I hope continues to grow, so I bumped it.  I'll add two good ones from my experience:


Kingsley #12 - My favorite hole on the course (photo by Jon Cavalier).





Colorado GC #10 - A thrilling start to the back nine.

[K Rafkin]

Unless my memory is failing me I'm pretty sure that 10 at Renaissance doesn't have a bunker.

[Steve_ Shaffer]

The 14th at Commonwealth National (Palmer) in the Philly 'burbs, my former club, is one such hole:

http://myphillygolf.com/uploads/bausch/Commonwealth/pages/page_80.html       et seq


You will note the fairway slopes right to left.

[Joe Lane]

Has anyone mentioned the 12th on Course 3 at Medinah? I can well imagine someone has, but if not: blind tee shot, fairway canted left to right with a slight left to right dogleg, to a green guarded with a tree on the left and a huge slope to a pond on the right. So, tee calls for a straight or fade shot, followed by a very long (200+ yds) second shot that must be either straight or drawn. Like all of Medinah’s heavy par fours (4 & 6, 12 & 16), it’s nearly 500 yards from the tips. Also like nearly all of Medinah’s holes, it’s a penal rather than strategic design (there’s only one real way to play it), but it is gorgeous, especially in the autumn—and the green might be one of the most difficult to putt on the entire course. Philosophically, it’s opposed to many ideas described on this site, but so what? To say that strategic golf is the only possible philosophy is arguably a tyranny of another sort—I certainly wouldn’t want to play it every day, but I wouldn’t want it changed either. 

[Tim Martin]

Yale 14

[Phil McDade]

The 8th at the Langford-Moreau Ozaukee CC in suburban Milwaukee -- a gently doglegging par 4 of 445 yards (from the tips; 425 yds from the regular tees) where the golfer on the tee is confronted with a creek to cross, and then a slowly rising fairway ending in an enormously deep, 3-tiered green (nestled in an old-growth set of trees) that might have five feet of elevation change from front to back. Just a really stern test from start to finish -- at U.S. Open qualifying there five years ago, it was the hardest hole on the course.

[Jon Wiggett]

It has only just struck me that my two favourite holes on the course I grew up playing (9 & 10 at Dewsbury) both are bunkerless. In fact, they are the only two without bunkers on the course. 9 is a short par 3 (130 yards) great due to a terrific, semi blind green and OOB just a couple of feet left of the green. 10 is a par 5 with a great open your shoulders drive followed by either risking cutting the corner and OOB with the second or playing short and left. Again the green was not visible and shown by a marker disc behind the green.

I would put the 9th as one of the best bunkerless holes I have ever played.

Jon

[Patrick_Mucci]

Preakness Hills had three bunkerless holes, the 6th, 10th and 13th.
 
At one time, only one hole had a fairway bunker.
 
Great use of the land, great routing.

[Michael Felton]

The one best bunkerless hole that I have played is No. 1 on Bethpage's Red Course.

Photo courtesy of the Bausch Collection:

There are bunkers on the right in the landing area on 1. I guess you could argue they are part of 18 on Black.


I do think 6 on Red is a good hole and it has no bunkers. The green and surrounds undulations are very good indeed.

[Mark Fedeli]

There are bunkers on the right in the landing area on 1. I guess you could argue they are part of 18 on Black.


I do think 6 on Red is a good hole and it has no bunkers. The green and surrounds undulations are very good indeed.

6 Red does have bunkers. All on the left side of the green. Terrific hole, though, for exactly the reasons you said. I would say the bunkers on #1 are definitely part of the Black course but they certainly come easily into play on Red. We may need Phil Young to chime in with the history of that complex.

[Tim Gallant]

Echoing others - the 14th at Royal Dornoch is a classic. Also really enjoyed the 8th at Cruden Bay.

[Michael Felton]

There are bunkers on the right in the landing area on 1. I guess you could argue they are part of 18 on Black.


I do think 6 on Red is a good hole and it has no bunkers. The green and surrounds undulations are very good indeed.

6 Red does have bunkers. All on the left side of the green. Terrific hole, though, for exactly the reasons you said. I would say the bunkers on #1 are definitely part of the Black course but they certainly come easily into play on Red. We may need Phil Young to chime in with the history of that complex.

I stand corrected! Never even noticed those over there.

[Mark Fedeli]

There are bunkers on the right in the landing area on 1. I guess you could argue they are part of 18 on Black.


I do think 6 on Red is a good hole and it has no bunkers. The green and surrounds undulations are very good indeed.

6 Red does have bunkers. All on the left side of the green. Terrific hole, though, for exactly the reasons you said. I would say the bunkers on #1 are definitely part of the Black course but they certainly come easily into play on Red. We may need Phil Young to chime in with the history of that complex.

I stand corrected! Never even noticed those over there.

You don't have to rub it in