Size of bunkers

[Jim Johnson]

I meant to bring this up a few days ago and never got the time to sit down and talk about it.

I wasn't able to catch much of the Matchplay tournament held last week, but I did overhear Hunter Mahan and his caddie yelling for his ball to "get in the bunker" on his approach shot on a par-4 on the back nine (can't recall which hole it was; doesn't matter). We've heard pros yell this all the time on the course when they mishit a shot. Got me thinking, are greenside bunkers made too large? In other words, wouldn't it be more of a penalty for the scratch golfer or low 'capper to miss on the far side of a bunker and have to flop a wedge over that bunker onto the green, rather than blast out of the sand? Mind you, if high handicappers miss a green they're probably going to really miss a green. But for them, perhaps flopping a wedge shot over a bunker is just the same (in degree of difficulty) as a sand shot anyway.

Thoughts?

[Tom_Doak]

Jim:

Maybe.  If the turf is links-firm and the bunkers are nasty, then a small one right up against the green works wonders.  But nobody likes long bunker shots, either, including the pros. 

[Mark Saltzman]

Jim:

Maybe.  If the turf is links-firm and the bunkers are nasty, then a small one right up against the green works wonders.  But nobody likes long bunker shots, either, including the pros. 

So what if bunkers are set several yards off the greens edge? That way shots that just miss the green will find rough (tougher for pros / easier for amateurs) and shots that are quite poor will find the bunker leaving a very difficult, long bunker shot (a good penalty for a very poor shot).

[Jon Wiggett]

Mark,

the distance that pros generally dislike is the 40 yard to 70 yard one which is neither a full splash shot nor a full clean pick but something in between.

Jon

[Matthew Petersen]

I'd have to see the context of the shot here to really have an opinion. If the other option for the ball was missing the sand and kicking down into the desert then it makes perfect sense why Mahan would have been hoping for it to get in the sand, and at the same time we wouldn't necessarily want to see the desert hazard moved closer to the green to accommodate a smaller bunker.

[Tim Nugent]

Jim:

Maybe.  If the turf is links-firm and the bunkers are nasty, then a small one right up against the green works wonders.  But nobody likes long bunker shots, either, including the pros. 

So what if bunkers are set several yards off the greens edge? That way shots that just miss the green will find rough (tougher for pros / easier for amateurs) and shots that are quite poor will find the bunker leaving a very difficult, long bunker shot (a good penalty for a very poor shot).

Also a very difficult penalty for the highest percentage of players to probably find that spot - the Chop.  I can tell it's been a long winter when more and more threads are looking at design through the very narrow eyes of the Tour player rather than the 99.9%

As for long greenside grass being sooo difficult, did anyone watch Rory when he missed right on Sunday (once you couldn't even see the ball when they were right on it) and still got it with 6-10'?

Maybe we should only rake bunker faces and leave the bottom all trampled - then they would be a hazard.