Rectangle/ Box shape bunkers?

[Tim Leahy]

I noticed at the Solheim the course Des Moine CC had several rectangle/box shaped traps/ bunkers. Was that really a design choice? Why? It really looked bad. Are there many other courses with this style of bunker?

[mike_beene]

Chicago Golf Club seem rectangular to me.

[Adrian_Stiff]

I noticed at the Solheim the course Des Moine CC had several rectangle/box shaped traps/ bunkers. Was that really a design choice? Why? It really looked bad. Are there many other courses with this style of bunker?

I am just about to build one.

[Peter Flory]

I believe that Midlothian (Chicagoland) used to have a very large and square bunker on the par 3 12th hole (1901).  It may have softened its shape over time.

[Mike Hendren]

Tim, I appreciate your take. Perhaps it's simply a matter of different strokes for different folks (and so on and so on and shoobie doobie doobie) but I absolutely love the four sided bunkers, particularly the squared trenches.  I'll look through my photographs for more examples as I routinely notice and photograph them.  I think they are more widespread than most believe.   The Macdonald, Raynor, Banks triumvirate used them extensively, but I suspect Donald J. Ross did as well.  I think they often make a nice juxtaposition with nature and for the same reason I like a straight line along one side of a green as well. 

I think Dye is brilliant in his greenside shaping, whether it be bunkers or mounds.  I often prefer it to so-called minimalism.

Cheers,

Mike

[Mike Sweeney]

Honestly, it is a lot of fun and it looks different on the ground, in a good way:

Mountain Lake - Lake Wales, Florida

[Matt Kardash]

Count me in as a fan

[Wade Whitehead]

Raynor used them.

WW

[Rick Emerson]

I absolutely loved the Bunkers. Not all of them were rectangular. I would however many of them angular. The coolest thing wasn't the shapes though. I really liked the flat bottom bunkers with the steep grass faces.
1. It was a nice change of pace to what we normally see on TV.
2. It made the bunkers more challenging. Bunker shots are easier off an upslope in the sand. The players had to actually think about getting it over the steep grass faces both around the greens and, more importantly, out of the fairway bunkers. Also balls got to awkward spots because the flat bottoms don't funnel shots toward the center.
3. The players actually treated the bunkers like hazards and tried to avoid them because if your ball ended up on the grass banks that surrounded the bunkers you were in trouble. It actually played into the outcome of quite a few holes in many of the matches.
I also have a question for the greens keepers among us. Are the flat bottom bunkers with the grass banks more costly to maintain? Does this play into why we don't see them used as much on Modern courses? I know you see lots of angular, flat bottom, grass faced bunkers from both the Macdonald/Raynor/Banks crew and Tillinghast. 

[Thomas Dai]

Historically construction by steam shovel or some other method?
Atb

[Rick Emerson]

Are the steep sloped flat bottom grass faced bunkers more costly to maintain than flashed faced bunkers? What about the more wavy sandy blowout style bunkers currently in vogue?