Pix from Conn. Nat'l. Those of you wanting a NE day should think about this Mark Mungeum course.
Principal's Nose bunker at 18
How, exactly, is this considered a Principal's Nose bunker?
Here's my understanding of the concept of a Principal's Nose bunker, based on how it plays on the 16th hole of TOC.
The bunker is placed roughly in the middle of the fairway, near where a drive might end up. The choice for the player is: play left of the bunker(s); play right of the bunker(s); play short of them; or try to carry them. From Ran's review of Yale: "The original purpose of the Principal’s Nose bunker at the sixteenth at The Old Course at St. Andrews was to create two different playing corridors off that tee."
In particular, at the 16th at TOC, the tee shot right of the Principal's Nose bunkers is the riskier route, as the player is faced with OB tight to the right side of the fairway. But the player is then rewarded with a much easier approach shot into the 16th green. The safer play off the tee at #16 is left, but the player is then faced with a more difficult approach into the green. See this from the BBC:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/golf/4629325.stmThe bunker shown here at Conn. National does not appear, from this photo, to adhere to those central tenets. There appears to be little if any fairway corridor left of the bunkers. Plus, the photo -- at least from this angle -- suggests that playing left of the bunkers yields no appreciable advantage; in fact, just the opposite -- the approach from the left looks more taxing than one from right of the bunkers.
It's a nice-looking bunker, and it probably gives one pause on the tee. But it doesn't appear to my eyes to be a Principal's Nose bunker.