Bad bunkers

[archie_struthers]

I guess I've got a love affair with bad bunkers, or at least firm ones.  Our club has made great strides in conditioning in the last decade, but our bunkers remain, in a word , rough.   Personally I love hard crusty  sand , and prefer dirt to the soft fluffy sand that proliferates at some of the best clubs. Nothing worse than plugs, which no amount of skill can overcome. Give me hard pan over heavy sand any day. What say you?

[Melvyn Morrow]

Archie

Bad bunkers always seem to attract me, even on the wrong side of the fairway.

Alas firm bunkers are of no value in my humble experience as they just propel the ball further without acting as the sand trap they were originally intended. Now if it were a more natural bunker, open to one side with drifting sand then the harder surface would be acceptable as it would let the ball run into the drifts giving the golfer the trap he should be expecting. But these modern hard floored no real edge or lipped bunkers are as welcome as that old saying a fart in a space suit. The only advantage with that being the pleasure is retained for the guy with the suit.

Perhaps we should remember that bunkers are sand traps, so the key words should explain their function. So when is hard sand useful as a trap? Shallow hard sand bunkers are an expensive visual decoration to a golf course, offering very little in return for the expensive build and maintenance regime required to sustain such weak traps. 

Think Road Hole Bunker, now you are talking about the real thing, Pot Bunkers are the traps the brings tears to grown golfers, the competitive golfer’s Nemesis, don’t you just love them and the deeper the better. These are more than ‘Fit For Purpose’.

Melvyn

[Doug Braunsdorf]

I guess I've got a love affair with bad bunkers, or at least firm ones.  Our club has made great strides in conditioning in the last decade, but our bunkers remain, in a word , rough.   Personally I love hard crusty  sand , and prefer dirt to the soft fluffy sand that proliferates at some of the best clubs. Nothing worse than plugs, which no amount of skill can overcome. Give me hard pan over heavy sand any day. What say you?

So that's why the bunkers seemed so firm on Friday...plugs and buries are annoying at best, but all things considered, we should 't be there in the first place.  Although, the path right of 6 is nice and firm.  In our wind, would balls plug a lot? 

[Jason Thurman]

Bunkers are hazards. As such, I'll take them in all shapes, sizes, and consistencies. The more variation in the type of shot you face from one, the more difficult it is to acclimate and prepare for them all.

When I play a course, I usually hit a few practice putts to get the speed of the greens right. I rarely hit practice bunker shots, so it's a real bummer when you get into sand and it's harder, softer, deeper, or shallower than you expected. The fact you can't take a practice swing and have to judge everything by how it feels against your feet just stinks for a bad bunker player (me) stuck in one.

[Sean_A]

I prefer not to have heavy or sand.  I think heavy is easier to cope with if the bunkers are deep.  I can play from any sort, but I it gets old watching guys hit it back and forth from from hard sand in deep pits.  Yeamans Hall springs to mind for this, but so do the waste area courses such Tobacco Road and Kiawah.  Mind you they aren't so bad because not so many are deep, but when they are deep they are seriously deep.   

[Patrick_Mucci]

Archie,

Why does the discussion have to be framed by extremes ?

Is there no happy medium ?

One of the problems may be the maintainance practices which redistribute the sand.

Would excavation, filtering the sand and refilling the bunkers to a consistent depth solve the problem ?

[cary lichtenstein]

Bunkers in the middle of the fairway always seemed to be a dumb idea to me, ditto soft sand

[archie_struthers]

 

Pat , your answer seems logical , but the cost to do this right can be upwards of $1,000,000 . For most modest member clubs , its too much dinero.  If you do it half right , it gets worse . 

So , my suggestion would be leave them a little dicey but work them with the machines. Ripping the bad ones up tends to get rid of the compaction issues, and settling to me is not as bad as compaction.  If you get the right sand wedge , its; pretty amazing how skillful you can be out of our bunkers. I played Philly CC over the weekend , and while their bunkers are uniform and perfect looking, they are harder to play out of for me.  Guess it's all those years playing a t muni's !!! LOL

[Will Lozier]

Bunkers in the middle of the fairway always seemed to be a dumb idea to me, ditto soft sand

Really...like at the oldest course in the world...on multiple occasions?!  Why is this dumb...because your "perfect" drive ends up in one?  If it does, it isn't a perfect drive.  Where is your sense of adventure?

And why soft sand...cause it makes a trap a real hazard?

Honestly Cary, I am shocked to hear this statement on this website. 

Cheers

[Mac Plumart]

I like these...


Love the maintenance on this one (or lack of it) at Aiken



Vastness really neat on this one at Tobacco Road



Loved the huge bunker on feeling of opening up on this hole at the tight Harbour Town



This one is a centerline bunker, but I'll give it a pass 

[Sean_A]

I like these...
Love the maintenance on this one (or lack of it) at Aiken

Fancy tearing up turf to "make" this - its hogwash.  Why not just set rabbits out on the course and let them have a go?

Ciao

[Mac Plumart]

Why not just set rabbits out on the course and let them have a go?


Ah, good ol' Askernish!