Inconsistency of Fairway Bunkering

[Sean_A]

I came across the below quote in the top Oz courses thread which intrigued me.  It had never occurred to me that consistent (not quite sure what that means) fairway bunkering should be a goal of design.  Indeed, I would probably lean toward inconsistency as something very interesting.  Of course, I am assuming that the whether consistent or not, the bunkers are well placed (and that is another debate entirely!).   In any case, what do folks think consistency in fairway bunkering means, should courses be bunkered as described below and does it follow that courses bunkered in this manner are inconsistent?

"With the exception of NSW and Pebble Beach, the Top 100 courses that I have seen all share one thing in common - a strong thematic consistency across the 18 holes with  strong attention to detail.  NSW is, in my opinion is all over the place.  There is a mish mash of sandy waste areas and pot bunkers, neither of which has really settled in, many unbunkered fairways and then the 18th hole with 5 fairway bunkers to contend with on the drive.  I mean, you have 10 fairway pots on the 1st and 18th combined and all of about 4(?) on the 16 holes in between."

Ciao

[Ally Mcintosh]

Unlike some, I don’t believe that you have to have only one style of bunker through a course. On a dunes course, I think it quite attractive to mix some revetted bunkers with natural blowouts. The problem comes when the bunker styles look out of place and the differences are in your face. And perhaps three styles are too many.

For placement, I like inconsistency within the holes. The chaos theory of bunker placement as a friend put it.

However, as an overall, I do think it important to keep some kind of theme. In other words, by all means leave some holes bunkerless and have some holes with more bunkers as identifiers. But do it within an overall scale and balance. The NSW example possibly sounds a little out of balance.

[Tim Nugent]

I tend to agree with Ally here.  Chaos rules!  However, I remember feeling disconcerted playing Sunningdale and there were the revetted pot and free-form bunkers.  I guess I'm of the school that believes bunkers are the one visual thing that can tie the holes together.  A good analogy is a golf course is like a big family, with 18 childern.  While each should have his/her own look and personality, you should be able to ascertain that they all have the same parents.