Would Royal Ashdown Forest be even better if it added a few strategic bunkers?

[Bart Bradley]

Heresy?

Bunkers at Royal Ashdown Forest?

Here is the truth.  I liked Ashdown.  It had some very good holes.  1 and 18 are not my favorites.  I felt the course could be better if a very few strategically placed bunkers were added.

Okay, let me have it.  Right or Wrong?

Bart

[JNC Lyon]

Heresy? No.  Illegal? Yes. 

I haven't played it (wish I had gotten the opportunity while there), but I'm guess a course with no bunkers could benefit from a few centerline hazards.  Interestingly, Huntercombe had 13 bunkers, but I felt that at least four of five weren't necessary.

[Mark_Rowlinson]

Not around the greens. The challenges of recovery onto the putting surfaces at RAF are many and varied and you need to be able to improvise. Good players are good bunker players and they would find recovery much easier from sand.

[Mark Chaplin]

Bart - RAF may benefit from bunkers but they are not allowed on the land so it will never happen. As Mark says the grassy and heathery humps and hollows around the greens present a far tougher examination to better players than bunkers.