[Mark Fedeli]

Couldn't find any info on this in past threads.

Before the rake ever existed anywhere, how was a player expected to clean up after himself in a bunker, if at all? Was it just the regular foot smoothing we're familiar with now? Was it acceptable to do even less than that? Was it acceptable to do nothing? Was there any strategy or one-upmanship involved?

[BCrosby]

I grew up playing on a course without rakes. It was expected that you would smooth the sand you disturbed with your foot.

Not everyone did it or did it with care. But few complained. Rub of the green and all that.

Bob   

[Jon Wiggett]

Same as Bob. Rakes were never part of the golfing scene at your average club in Yorkshire when I was growing up. Use your foot or a club. Greenkeepers would rake them once or twice a week or before big competitions and no one complained.

As far as bunkers go the are too many pampered pansy playing the game who complain about the sand been too soft or to hard instead of been grateful that there is sand in the bunker at all

Jon

[Bill_McBride]

Ditto with the footwork.  You always tried to do a decent job in hopes the other guy would do the same. 

It always amazes me today when you walk into an unrated bunker.  There are two or three around our bunkers, so it's just pure laziness and selfishness. 

[Mark Fedeli]

So was that same etiquette used in 19th century, for instance?

I'm trying to determine if the evolving philosophies that led to the very first rakes also led to an expectation of more and better foot smoothing at still rake-less places.

[Thomas Dai]

There was a long thread herein a few months ago about whether or not bunkers should even be raked. I've not been able to search and find it though, but I recall the thread being debated for quite a while.
atb

[Jim_Kennedy]

Mark,
Below is an article from 1914 by John G. Anderson that dealt with course presentation, etc. 
He was a founding member of WF, an accomplished player, and writer.   

The quote from Ted Ray probably reflects the more courteous approach of most players in the era of no rakes.
Anderson's first sentence is still valid today, 100 years after he wrote it.

p.s. Brad Klein on the subject:    "...as far as I can tell, the first rake ads in the 1920s for greenkeepers. Maybe the British or Irish are earlier, but I haven't seen it (yet). I have scoured photos of championships and you will find evidence of scruffed up bunkers without obvious raking until the post WWII era, when it looks like rakes were used regularly during play. Even then, you will not see rakes in the photos of courses during play until the mid-late 1950s.  So I would date that as the end of civilization as we know it in the post-Sputnik era, i.e. 1957+."

[Mark Fedeli]

Brilliant stuff, Jim. That's very much what I'm looking for. I wanted to understand what a bunker was like at St. Andrews in 1870 versus, say, Pine Valley in 1970. Were the 1870 bunkers completely unkept and wild, without even cursory efforts to smooth footprints or divots? More specifically, was everyone in agreement that these were HAZARDS, so it was also agreed that little should be done to maintain their playability?

Instead, what your clipping leads me to believe is that there was some early culture of "foot-smoothing" and creating a level of fairness between competitors, and this led to the idea of rakes.

[Forrest Richardson]

http://www.golfgroupltd.com/writings/great_rake_debate.html

[Tags:]

Tags:

[Tags:]

Tags:

Call to undefined function theme_linktree()