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Tommy Williamsen

  • Karma: +0/-0
Bunker sand
« on: May 26, 2017, 06:12:28 PM »
I recently played golf in Nevada and Utah. One of the things that stood out was bunker sand. It varied in color, texture, and firmness. I am used to different sand and actually like figure out how to play out of different kinds of sand. That said, however, the color of the sand makes a difference. I played Wolf Creek and the sand was pure white.





At Sand Hollow the sand was the same color as the surroundings.





The sand at WC makes for nice pictures but is totally out of place. The sand at SH is more natural. What are your preferences?
Where there is no love, put love; there you will find love.
St. John of the Cross

"Deep within your soul-space is a magnificent cathedral where you are sweet beyond telling." Rumi

Greg Smith

  • Karma: +0/-0
Re: Bunker sand
« Reply #1 on: May 26, 2017, 06:56:48 PM »
I think the issue isn't so much sand color as style of bunker.  In the WC picture, the "fingers and shamrocks" style looks out of place against the desert environment.  In fact, I think "fingers and shamrocks" look out of place almost everywhere (but Tillinghast made a few nice ones at Winged Foot ...). 

Bunkers like the ones at WC are obviously man-made (as is the rest of the green golf course in a DESERT).  So why try to round off and sculpt everything?  If the course is flat out created and engineered out of nothing, go ahead and use an honest, completely engineered bunker style.   That is one strength of Seth Raynor's work -- at least he was not trying to hide his interventions.

If you're going to use a totally manufactured bunker style, then why not go ahead and use totally manufactured white sand just to highlight the manufactured-ness?  I think that would look fine on a Raynor-style course.   It would have been interesting to see Raynor try and build something in a place like Utah.

On the other hand, the "natural" brown sand is NOT going to look fine in those shamrock bunkers at WC.  It wouldn't look fine in hypothetical Raynor-style bunkers either.  If you're going to use the "natural" brown sand to match the desert, you need to use more "natural" scraggly, random bunker edges -- and maybe fade the bunkers into the brownish desert surrounds and/or waste areas.

Those "natural" bunkers would look TERRIBLE with pure white sand -- at least in the desert.  In order to get away with the pure white sand in a "natural" style, the course would have to be in a light-colored, native sandy area -- such as the dune holes at Cypress Point (which is probably the sterling example).

So -- it's not really the sand itself that's the big deal, IMO.
O fools!  who drudge from morn til night
And dream your way of life is wise,
Come hither!  prove a happier plight,
The golfer lives in Paradise!                      

John Somerville, The Ballade of the Links at Rye (1898)

Jason Topp

  • Karma: +0/-0
Re: Bunker sand
« Reply #2 on: May 26, 2017, 11:48:52 PM »
Red

Tommy Williamsen

  • Karma: +0/-0
Re: Bunker sand
« Reply #3 on: May 27, 2017, 11:30:15 AM »
Greg, I understand what you are saying. To some extent I agree. The entire bunker style doesn't fit the location. It is a rugged site and deserves a rugged look. I played a Nicklaus course not far from WC and he incorporated a rugged look with native type sand. It works better than the look one would get in, say, New Jersey.
Where there is no love, put love; there you will find love.
St. John of the Cross

"Deep within your soul-space is a magnificent cathedral where you are sweet beyond telling." Rumi

Josh Stevens

  • Karma: +0/-0
Re: Bunker sand
« Reply #4 on: May 29, 2017, 06:14:43 AM »
That red sand reminds me of Royal Adelaide.  Lovely to just dig a hole and there it is

Does anyone in the world actually think white sand looks good?

Adam Lawrence

  • Karma: +0/-0
Re: Bunker sand
« Reply #5 on: May 29, 2017, 06:17:10 AM »
Well clearly some people do, or they wouldn't pay through the nose to buy it and have it trucked in...
Adam Lawrence

Editor, Golf Course Architecture
www.golfcoursearchitecture.net

Principal, Oxford Golf Consulting
www.oxfordgolfconsulting.com

Author, 'More Enduring Than Brass: a biography of Harry Colt' (forthcoming).

Short words are best, and the old words, when short, are the best of all.

Ian Andrew

  • Karma: +0/-0
Re: Bunker sand
« Reply #6 on: May 29, 2017, 07:28:10 AM »

Does anyone in the world actually think white sand looks good?


Yes, from my own experiences, almost every member at every private club would choose white sand.
Perhaps that's a North American thing, but that's the common refrain for new sand.

With every golf development bubble, the end was unexpected and brutal....

Peter Pallotta

Re: Bunker sand
« Reply #7 on: May 29, 2017, 08:03:34 AM »
Besides whatever prestige that it might signify, I wonder if visibility is also part of the appeal. A kind of visibility that is meant to highlight the hazard, to purposely set it off/apart from its surroundings as a sign/symbol of the course's difficulty. I imagine few members of a high end private want their course to look like the local muni, and even fewer want it to seem to be easy/a pushover.

Mike_Young

  • Karma: +0/-0
Re: Bunker sand
« Reply #8 on: May 29, 2017, 08:49:10 AM »
I know of one course in Costa Rica where the sand was brought from Ohio just to wash in the Fall rains.  As we have progressed down the road of overkill on golf courses , sand is one of the big ones.  Technically speaking I am sure the USGA and others have gotten the "sand" science down to where it can be argued as to the BEST sand out there ;D but it's hard to justify for most places and those places should use whatever is available locally.  Adapt to it and accept it as what you will use at that particular course.  My unscientific opinion is that if sand were the color of the grass we wouldn't use nearly as much.  It's the contrast we like in the artform.
"just standing on a corner in Winslow Arizona"

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