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Jason Way

  • Karma: +0/-0
C'mon Man! Bunkers Edition
« on: January 07, 2017, 10:33:06 PM »
A few nights back, I was happily engaging in one of my favorite pastimes in bed.  No, not that one.  Not that other one either.  I was sitting in bed leafing through LINKS Magazine, and I came across this photo of Rees Jones's Haig Point.



It made me do a double take.  I turned to my lovely wife, showed her the picture and inquired, "What does that look like to you?"

"A penis," came back her reply. "Or ovaries."

Satisfied that it was not just my twisted mind playing tricks on me, I then found myself wondering how often something like this happens, which seemed like a fun topic to explore. 

So, first, to Rees Jones and his crew for creating this sandy phallus, to the photographer who did not delete the photo the moment he/she saw it, and to the fine folks at LINKS who created this page in the magazine, I say, C'MON MAN!

Next, to you golf geeks, I ask - what are some bunkers you have seen in photos or in person that deserve a "c'mon man!"?

And finally, to the archies and shapers on here, have you ever built a bunker that didn't quite come out as you intended?  Perhaps to the point that you gave it a good laugh and started over?

Do share...
"Golf is a science, the study of a lifetime, in which you can exhaust yourself but never your subject." - David Forgan

Ronald Montesano

  • Karma: +0/-0
Re: C'mon Man! Bunkers Edition
« Reply #1 on: January 07, 2017, 10:51:17 PM »
Muirhead's mermaid hole.
Coming in 2024
~Elmira Country Club
~Soaring Eagles
~Bonavista
~Indian Hills
~Maybe some more!!

Tom_Doak

  • Karma: +1/-1
Re: C'mon Man! Bunkers Edition
« Reply #2 on: January 07, 2017, 11:02:13 PM »
We once built a par-3 hole that one of the shapers insisted looked like the Cartman character from South Park.  I could not for the life of me see what they were talking about, so I didn't change the hole on that basis.

Jon Cavalier

  • Karma: +0/-0
Re: C'mon Man! Bunkers Edition
« Reply #3 on: January 07, 2017, 11:18:22 PM »
The original bunkering at Stone Harbor Country Club, in all manner of bizarre shapes and locations, most of which are thankfully gone, would have easily made this list.
Golf Photos via
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Dave McCollum

  • Karma: +0/-0
Re: C'mon Man! Bunkers Edition
« Reply #4 on: January 07, 2017, 11:27:15 PM »
The critical difference is the aerial perspective.  How many folks hire a chopper to escape the ground level view?  Drone review may become a standard future checkpoint.  Golf courses look better from above; honest photography from the golfer's perspective. This will always cause conflict because the golfer "sees" the hole as an aerial, as an topo map of the attack plan from above, while the ground level view is basically a hit and hope with all of the bothersome details that could derail the plan.  I say this as how my mind works.  Understand I may be outlier and others may see it differently.  I can easily imagine a golf feature looking great on the ground and two monkeys interacting from above.

Paul Rudovsky

  • Karma: +0/-0
Re: C'mon Man! Bunkers Edition
« Reply #5 on: January 08, 2017, 12:08:06 AM »
How about the 16th hole at Sandy Lane--Green Monkey in Barbados...about 200 yard par 3 with a bunker shaped like a monkey!!!!!!!????????  Simply awful.


Paul

jeffwarne

  • Karma: +0/-0
Re: C'mon Man! Bunkers Edition
« Reply #6 on: January 08, 2017, 12:29:47 AM »
How about the 16th hole at Sandy Lane--Green Monkey in Barbados...about 200 yard par 3 with a bunker shaped like a monkey!!!!!!!? ??? ??? ?  Simply awful.


Paul


yes but at least they didn't name it the green penis.....
"Let's slow the damned greens down a bit, not take the character out of them." Tom Doak
"Take their focus off the grass and put it squarely on interesting golf." Don Mahaffey

Joe Zucker

  • Karma: +0/-0
Re: C'mon Man! Bunkers Edition
« Reply #7 on: January 08, 2017, 03:18:37 AM »
There is the Mickey bunker at the Magnolia course at Disney.  It's fitting for the locations and considering there is not much else worthwhile on the course, I enjoyed it.

Ronald Montesano

  • Karma: +0/-0
Re: C'mon Man! Bunkers Edition
« Reply #8 on: January 08, 2017, 07:30:49 AM »

The Greenis !!



How about the 16th hole at Sandy Lane--Green Monkey in Barbados...about 200 yard par 3 with a bunker shaped like a monkey!!!!!!!? ??? ??? ?  Simply awful.


Paul


yes but at least they didn't name it the green penis.....
Coming in 2024
~Elmira Country Club
~Soaring Eagles
~Bonavista
~Indian Hills
~Maybe some more!!

Ronald Montesano

  • Karma: +0/-0
Re: C'mon Man! Bunkers Edition
« Reply #9 on: January 08, 2017, 07:32:23 AM »
And Jason, here is the question that I meant to ask from the beginning: exactly what does that bunker protect? I don't see a green nearby, and I don't see tees across the marsh. How does it come into play?
Coming in 2024
~Elmira Country Club
~Soaring Eagles
~Bonavista
~Indian Hills
~Maybe some more!!

Ian Mackenzie

  • Karma: +0/-0
Re: C'mon Man! Bunkers Edition
« Reply #10 on: January 08, 2017, 09:29:31 AM »
On one of the (less famous) courses at Medinah, there is a bunker that was shaped to look like a camel.


At another "upscale" daily fee course near Chicago called Cantigny, there is a bunker that looks like the comic book character Dick Tracy. on purpose....ugh.


Come on, man!

Ken Fry

  • Karma: +0/-0
Re: C'mon Man! Bunkers Edition
« Reply #11 on: January 08, 2017, 09:54:20 AM »
I can think of three intentional shapings:

Kearny Hills, Lexington, KY - Hole #13.  Pete Dye cut the "IU" logo for a fairway bunker as a slam to the UK folks.

Angel's Crossing, Vicksburg, MI - It's hard to tell now but the two large bunkers to the left off the first tee were in the shape of Buffalos in homage to the Buffalo Bills.

Harborside, Chicago, IL - 15th hole on the Port Course.  A lovely anchor was created with turf and sand.


Jason Way

  • Karma: +0/-0
Re: C'mon Man! Bunkers Edition
« Reply #12 on: January 08, 2017, 10:14:37 AM »
And Jason, here is the question that I meant to ask from the beginning: exactly what does that bunker protect? I don't see a green nearby, and I don't see tees across the marsh. How does it come into play?


Same question occurred to me. It looks like it could be off the back edge of a green, but I'm not sure. 
"Golf is a science, the study of a lifetime, in which you can exhaust yourself but never your subject." - David Forgan

Jason Way

  • Karma: +0/-0
Re: C'mon Man! Bunkers Edition
« Reply #13 on: January 08, 2017, 10:36:56 AM »
We once built a par-3 hole that one of the shapers insisted looked like the Cartman character from South Park.  I could not for the life of me see what they were talking about, so I didn't change the hole on that basis.

I am now mildly obsessed with figuring out which Renaissance par-3 looks like Cartman.

Here are a few of the bunkers that have been mentioned:








Although these bunkers are arguably kitschy, which could be used as justification for a C'Mon Man!, they are what they are.  I'm more interested in bunkers that seemed like they were going to be cool, but then came out horribly wrong in one way or another by any reasonably objective aesthetic measure.

"Two monkeys interacting" is one of the all-time-greatest phrases used on this DG.
"Golf is a science, the study of a lifetime, in which you can exhaust yourself but never your subject." - David Forgan

Tom_Doak

  • Karma: +1/-1
Re: C'mon Man! Bunkers Edition
« Reply #14 on: January 08, 2017, 10:49:39 AM »
On one of the (less famous) courses at Medinah, there is a bunker that was shaped to look like a camel.



The camel bunker is 100 yards off the first tee on Medinah #1.  When we started the renovation project, the shape had been lost a bit; I thought it looked more like the bear on a Klondyke bar.


Medinah is kind of a kitschy place, so I thought it was proper to restore the bunker.  But the club had decided to create a new camel logo for Course One, so we had to rebuild the bunker to match the new logo ... same number of humps, just a slightly different posture.  I am sure that rebuilding it is one of the highlights of Blake Conant's shaping career.


P.S.  I was looking at Google Earth a couple of days ago and spied another "anchor" bunker in Manila, which turned out to be on the first hole at Navy Golf Club.
« Last Edit: January 08, 2017, 12:05:53 PM by Tom_Doak »

Eric Smith

  • Karma: +0/-0
Re: C'mon Man! Bunkers Edition New
« Reply #15 on: January 08, 2017, 10:50:29 AM »
'
« Last Edit: November 29, 2019, 08:38:06 PM by eric_smith »

Blake Conant

  • Karma: +0/-0
Re: C'mon Man! Bunkers Edition
« Reply #16 on: January 08, 2017, 11:48:13 AM »
On one of the (less famous) courses at Medinah, there is a bunker that was shaped to look like a camel.



The camel bunker is 100 yards off the first tee on Medinah #1.  When we started the renovation project, the shape had been lost a bit; I thought it looked more like the bear on a Klondyke bar.


Medinah is kind of a kitschy place, so I thought it was proper to restore the bunker.  But the club had decided to create a new camel logo for Course One, so we had to rebuild the bunker to match the new logo ... same number of humps, just a slightly different posture.  I am sure that rebuilding it is one of the highlights of Mike McCartin's shaping career.


P.S.  I was looking at Google Earth a couple of days ago and spied another "anchor" bunker in Manila, which turned out to be on the first hole at Navy Golf Club.


Tom, something important as this must be set straight: I built the Camel Bunker at Medinah and it's probably my greatest accomplishment to date.  Mike did a lot of great work out there, but nothing compares to the bactrian camel.  And if we're being really honest, Wadsworths finish shaper, Rafulio, actually deserves most of the credit, as I'm sure I left a mess. 
« Last Edit: January 08, 2017, 12:40:29 PM by Blake Conant »

Tom_Doak

  • Karma: +1/-1
Re: C'mon Man! Bunkers Edition
« Reply #17 on: January 08, 2017, 12:07:19 PM »

Tom, something important as this must be set straight: I built the Camel Bunker at Medinah and it's probably my greatest accomplishment to date.  Mike did a lot of great work out there, but nothing compares to the bactrian camel.  And if we're being really honest, Wadsworths finish shaper, Rafulio, actually deserves most of the credit, as I'm sure I left a mess. 


Edited accordingly.  In return, please take down your photos immediately.  I was never going to reveal the answer to that riddle.  And Chris must have had one too many boxes of Nerds that day!

Thomas Dai

  • Karma: +0/-0
Re: C'mon Man! Bunkers Edition
« Reply #18 on: January 08, 2017, 12:08:49 PM »
There was a similar thread a year or so ago and a Canadian architect of this parish posted some humorous work by Stanley Thompson. Apologies for not being able to post the thread link.
Atb

Steve Lang

  • Karma: +0/-0
Re: C'mon Man! Bunkers Edition
« Reply #19 on: January 08, 2017, 12:26:43 PM »
 8)   Giants Ridge, one needs to play big there!


« Last Edit: January 08, 2017, 12:43:40 PM by Steve Lang »
Inverness (Toledo, OH) cathedral clock inscription: "God measures men by what they are. Not what they in wealth possess.  That vibrant message chimes afar.
The voice of Inverness"

Steve Lang

  • Karma: +0/-0
Re: C'mon Man! Bunkers Edition
« Reply #20 on: January 08, 2017, 12:44:50 PM »
 8)  Little Great Lakes action


Inverness (Toledo, OH) cathedral clock inscription: "God measures men by what they are. Not what they in wealth possess.  That vibrant message chimes afar.
The voice of Inverness"

Pete_Pittock

  • Karma: +0/-0
Re: C'mon Man! Bunkers Edition
« Reply #21 on: January 08, 2017, 12:59:56 PM »
Cottonwood in Irving, TX has a texas-shaped green with an Oklahoma shaped bunker behind (above). If I played there I think I would damage the cup replacing the flagstick extra hard (voodoo).

Jeff_Brauer

  • Karma: +0/-0
Re: C'mon Man! Bunkers Edition
« Reply #22 on: January 08, 2017, 01:42:18 PM »

Years ago, the former Elks club somewhere near Chicago had a green shaped like an elk, with Antlers, I think.  Besides the foot, I also have a few Cat Paws out there (K State seemed obligatory) and Fortune Bay has a mama bear and baby bear crossing the sixth fw, but those actually work okay as normal bunkers.  Firekeeper has a Buffalo, taken from their logo.


Its not hard to accidentally build a Mickey Mouse bunker, if you are trying to do cape and bay style bunkers.  That is why I always walk back and check my bunker shape paint line, it happens more than you might think.....


Always wanted to do one shaped like a middle finger somewhere, but no client has had just the right sense of humor to let me do it.....
Jeff Brauer, ASGCA Director of Outreach

Ken Fry

  • Karma: +0/-0
Re: C'mon Man! Bunkers Edition
« Reply #23 on: January 08, 2017, 01:58:58 PM »
At one time Bear Slide GC in Cicero, IN had a bear paw print bunker on one of the front nine holes.

Ken

Neil White

  • Karma: +0/-0
Re: C'mon Man! Bunkers Edition
« Reply #24 on: January 08, 2017, 02:27:50 PM »
I'm fairly sure someone, somewhere thought this was a good idea........  ::)



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