The Arble Ideal Bunkerless Golf Course

[Sean_A]

Berkhampsted is a realy good golf course.  Kington is a wonderful place and a sheer pleasure to play.  Both are bunkerless.  Neither would be improved by sand.

Mark

I do think the course could benefit from a handful of bunkers and some of the mounding used near greens on fairways, but the scale would have to be large because of the site.  But I would settle for the earthworks in fairways. 

BTW I am tentatively scheduled to play Kington on Friday. 4 guys with lunch at £50 for the lot!  Kington truly has its priorities straight.  I wish a lot more clubs operated as low key as Kington.

Ciao

[Brad Tufts]

Steve,

How so?  I did the flyover videos of Four Mile Ranch and see bunkers on at least three or four of the holes on the front nine.

4 Mile Ranch doesn't have bunkers.  What can be seen on the aerial are piles of flat shale stone.  They would be circular from above.  There are a few other waste areas, but they are either desert gravel, a deep rock formation (#1), or the shale piles.

[Bryan Izatt]

Brad,

Point taken.  The flyover video screen scrape below seemed to indicate a bunker; but I guess it's a rock formation or shale pile.  Do you suppose any intent by Engh to shape the shale piles or rock formations to emulate more traditional bunkers?  I presume they are much more penal than sand bunkers.

[Bryan Izatt]

Mark,

You and Sean find such nice, quirky courses.  In the aerial below of the 8th (I think) green at Kington, do you suppose that those were once sand bunkers, or were they always grassed?  Do you suppose this is another instance of a designer trying to emulate the form and function of a sand bunker, without the sand?  Seems to me that the sand bunker is an essential part of the repertoire of an architect and that some form of a bunker makes it into designs, even on (sand) bunkerless courses.  At Kington with grass and at Four mile Ranch with rock.

[Sean_A]

Mark,

You and Sean find such nice, quirky courses.  In the aerial below of the 8th (I think) green at Kington, do you suppose that those were once sand bunkers, or were they always grassed?  Do you suppose this is another instance of a designer trying to emulate the form and function of a sand bunker, without the sand?  Seems to me that the sand bunker is an essential part of the repertoire of an architect and that some form of a bunker makes it into designs, even on (sand) bunkerless courses.  At Kington with grass and at Four mile Ranch with rock.

Bryan

That is the wee 9th hanging over a valley which is essentially Wales.  The wind rips up that valley making this a cracker of a hole. In fact, Kington has one of the best sets of 3s I know of.  To give you some scale, that brown spot at the back of the green is steps about 5 feet high.

I don't think there ever was permanent sand in those hollows. Though I believe the club fiddled with the idea and put sand in some hollows long after the Major's departure from this earth.  It didn't work out because the the sheep bedded down in the bunkers and made a ca ca mess.  It was either sheep or sand and as sheep were and are free grounds crew it was a no brainer decision. 

Ciao

[Bryan Izatt]

Ooops, posted in wrong thread, see the Evolution of the Bunker thread.

[Doug Siebert]

I always wish I could get some GCA people out here to Iowa to check out Saddleback Ridge in Solon - if any of you guys play The Harvester and drive through on your way there/back on I-80 give me a shout and I'll take you out there - its only about a 10 mile detour north of I-80 in the area of Iowa City.  I think its a course most in GCA would find to be pretty nifty.

I am sad to say it does have two bunkers, but one is back right on the 204 yard par 3 4th, and I have NEVER seen a single golfer in that bunker.  The other is on the corner of the dogleg on the 504 yard par 5 5th, so it does come into play for longer hitters (or shorter hitters who play a poor first and/or second, I suppose)  But really both could be filled in and it wouldn't affect the play of the course or the strategy of those holes.  I keep wishing they would do so as having no bunkers would add to the course's already considerable "quirk points" score!

While the course is no Medinah, it is strategically quite interesting despite the nearly entire lack of bunkers and trees not coming into play much at all (and water is really only a big issue on one hole)  It makes terrific use of slopes, both natural (the 100 foot high ridge running across the course and providing its name) and smaller artificial ones that are done really well and look quite natural and a bit Irish which help make approach angles important on many of the holes.

There are some pushovers, of course, its no brute (6615/70.7/121 from the tips)  But all the holes have their own feel and personality and there's no repetitive feel at all, which often not the case even on fairly highly rated courses over 18 holes.  The architect is Mark Kerr, who has done a few other courses, mostly around the midwest I believe.  Hopefully he'll get some bigger opportunities, IMHO he deserves them!