[Tom MacWood]

bump

[Niall C]

I'll bite.

Castle Stuart has added some bunkers on a couple of the wide open holes that have little or no bunkering. The team behind the course have stated that they planned to do this all along, once they saw how the course played. Cynics may say that this is because at last years Scottish Open the winner was something like 20 under after 3 rounds. Personally, having met Mark Parsinen an number of years ago, and Stuart McColm more recently, I am prepared to believe its because they genuinely are looking to evolve the course themselves.

Mark P told the story how after building Kingsbarns he changed a bunker early on after how he saw how it played, and after negative comments from Gary Player. When you think about it, why wouldn't you want to tinker away if you are an owner/designer. Perhaps second time round he figured the better way of doing that was to add things as you went along rather than taking away/altering.

Niall

[Jud_T]

They've been studying the ideal locations at Spring Valley for 75 years.  Should be ridiculously good when they're finally in....

[Carl Nichols]

Paul Cowley:

Haven't you ever read the story about H.C. Leeds at Myopia Hunt Club?  When a good player came to play the course, Leeds would go out with him, and when the good player hit a mediocre drive Leeds would mark the spot, and go back out and dig a bunker later!

I understand the theory behind this approch, but if the hole without and then with the bunker is sufficiently different, does it tell you that much (or that much more than you could otherwise figure out)?  In other words, if a good player steps up to the tee and there's no bunker out there, he will play the hole a certain way -- and a mediocre drive will end up where Leeds puts the bunker.  After the bunker is there, I would think a good player would play the hole differently, because he wants not to end up in the bunker.  So it seems to me that Leeds' approach would change how the good player plays the hole and make it less likely that his ball ends up where the bunker is. 

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