"That bunker's not in play."

[Scott Wintersteen]

They are actually doing something similar at my home course.  They are adding a bunker in the middle of the fairway on hole #17 hole.  The bunker was in the original course design but was removed by a committee a while ago.  It is also at least 40-50 yards short of the green but too far away to come into play for drives on the hole.  It will come into play if you are playing bump and run golf from the left hand side of the fairway though.   

[Jim Sherma]

Bunkers that are 20-50 yards short of greens that are "out of play" for the whole year are almost certain to jump up and bite you every now and then. Hitting these types of shots are so tough and you just don't really go out of your way to practice them because all the spots that you would see them are really not in play, except when they are.

[Tom_Doak]

For what it's worth, when someone tells me on a consulting visit that a bunker "is not in play," I immediately ask them if they really have NEVER been in it?  Usually, they own up to having been in it at some point, and how embarrassing it was for them.  That's the real motivation behind many such appeals for removal.