In Praise of the Fairway Bunkering at CommonGround

[John Ezekowitz]

I got to play CommonGround a couple of weeks ago and was very impressed. Every city should be lucky to have a public facility as good as CG; when I was there on a Friday afternoon, the range was full and there was a 30-strong junior clinic on one of the putting greens.


I enjoyed the course a lot, but the thing that sticks most with me is the strategic interest and challenge of the fairway bunkering. I frequently found myself confronted off the tee, both with downwind and into the wind shots, with tough decisions about where to aim and how much to carry based on a well-placed fairway bunker. Holes I specifically remember being challenged: 3, 7, 8, 10, 11, 14 (hollow on the left, not a bunker), and 18.


Importantly, my guess is that players from all teeing grounds would face a similar decision on these holes. I'm not sure why I can articulate why, but this bunkering stood out to me apart from other Doak courses I've played. Maybe it was that there were fewer bunkers but they frequently cut in diagonally with great visuals.


What other courses fit this mold?

[MCirba]

John,


I played CommonGround this past weekend and was really blown away at what a terrific public facility they've created as well as their extensive programs particularly around developing the game including caddying programs.


I also think along with the bunkering that you mentioned the Green's themselves and their surrounds really go a long way to elevating the golf course. In my mind it's a Doak Scale 7 and repeated plays I suspect may even have it bump up a bit with the type of variability needed in strategic decision-making depending on the wind due to the bunker placements you mentioned.

[Peter Pallotta]

Mike, John - I find it interesting to read about how & why bunkering works on relatively flat, featureless ground and undramatic sites like at CG. Does the bunkering there work so well for you because of - or in spite of - the nature of the site itself?
P

[Tom_Doak]

It is easier to put bunkers in interesting spots on relatively flat ground, because you have every option available.  On good land, you are more tempted to fit the bunkers into natural rises, and of course you've done the routing based in part on those natural rises, so the obvious places for bunkers are not that thought-provoking.


Thanks for the question; I'd never really thought of it that way.


Also, Common Ground is the product of multiple designers of different abilities, so you may be noticing the difference between where Don Placek would put a bunker (3rd hole) and where Eric Iverson would (7th) and where I would (8th hole) and where Jim Urbina did (10th).


We are quite proud of the whole facility and not just for all they do for junior golfers.

[MCirba]

We are quite proud of the whole facility and not just for all they do for junior golfers.

Tom,
You and your team have every right to be proud of that golf course and facility.   It is ideal, incredibly playable, strategically interesting, and almost unbelievably affordable.   The place was jam-packed this past weekend with everyone from little kids to us old folks.   

When I first read Peter's question, my first thoughts were that two things that make the type of diagonally-jutting bunkers utilized at CommonGround work optimally with interest and strategic variability on flat ground are 1) wind and 2) firm conditions, such that the distance to/from those bunkers is a complicated determination on any given day.   This should be unsurprising given that's exactly what makes the concept work so well on old world linksland, which is generally flattish terrain (albeit with lots of micro-contours).


In contrast, on a course with softer conditions, or one with little or no wind, good players just dial-in a yardage and you lose that degree of unpredictability and subsequent indecision.

[Doug Wright]

Very good observations about CommonGround’s fairway bunkers. What I’ve noticed from several rounds there is that the fairway bunkers you mention encroach on the “line of charm”; in nearly every case you’re looking straight at (and can see) the green/flagstick from the tee and the natural temptation (at least for me) consciously or unconsciously is to go that direct route. Thought and care is required to line up correctly and play away from these hazards--or in proper conditions to try to carry them.

As we’ve said on other threads, CommonGround is indeed a very fine, interesting golf course for both GCA-philes and the everyday player who doesn’t care about such things.   

[Peter Pallotta]

Thanks very much for the insights, gents.

Made me think: perhaps the only potential drawback of an otherwise ideal combination of old-school routing skill + sandy soil & dramatic landforms + new-school finishing techniques is that temptation to place bunkers precisely where they're 'supposed to be' and where they look most 'natural' -- an approach that, in less skilled or determined hands, might lessen/negate the 'purely' strategic function & variability that Mike and others note at CG.

Also: made me think yet again of The Loop. Like Sean A, if I had to pick one TD course as my first ever play, it would be that one.

[Kalen Braley]

I don't want to over-simplify this thing.


But why aren't more golf courses builders interested in asking the golfer to negotiate a bunker for a reward or advantage, or even an obstacle to be avoided on a shortish 4 or 5... instead of using it as punishment or just course framing?


As an already self-proclaimed bunker slut...I would take a golf course full of ugly oval saucers that are placed in the right spots any day over one with hairy bunkers in all the wrong/uninteresting places.

[Matthew Petersen]

Very good observations about CommonGround’s fairway bunkers. What I’ve noticed from several rounds there is that the fairway bunkers you mention encroach on the “line of charm”; in nearly every case you’re looking straight at (and can see) the green/flagstick from the tee and the natural temptation (at least for me) consciously or unconsciously is to go that direct route. Thought and care is required to line up correctly and play away from these hazards--or in proper conditions to try to carry them.

As we’ve said on other threads, CommonGround is indeed a very fine, interesting golf course for both GCA-philes and the everyday player who doesn’t care about such things.   

That's really the deal.


Just a lot of holes where you would like to either carry a bunker or play close to a bunker to either shorten a hole or gain a better angle. There's always plenty of room to play safe to the other side of that bunker--the course's fairways are plenty wide (though woe to you if you really start spraying it and the hay is up). Some day, depending on how good your contact is and how the wind is blowing, you might be able to get it over, other days not. Sometimes for some of those holes (#8 for example) the pin positions will mean will mean you aren't interested in challenging those bunkers anyway. A simple but really fascinating golf course. Such a shame I lived nearby when it was Mira Vista. :/

[MCirba]

In thinking more about it, one of the other things that make the bunkers intersecting lines of play at CommonGround so appealing and interestingly effective is that they not only bleed into the fairways lines, but they themselves are often set at some diagonal so that they can be carried on one side but perhaps not on the other.   Again, the golfer needs to take into consideration wind direction and speed, as well as where the "rollout" may direct the ball on firm terrain.   These all factor to create a puzzle that seemingly can be quite variable day to day dependent on conditions.

[BCrosby]

"But why aren't more golf courses builders interested in asking the golfer to negotiate a bunker for a reward or advantage, or even an obstacle to be avoided on a shortish 4 or 5... instead of using it as punishment or just course framing?"

Standing on a tee on a course new to me, that question (or something like it) often comes to mind. There are too many courses where strategic bunkering, when you find it, is purely accidental. Not accidental is that the bunkers are built to be flashy or frame the hole or block the view of a cart path or whatever.

That's not earth-shattering news, but worth repeating now and again.

Bob 

[Ryan Farrow]

I thought Apache Stronghold was one of the best golf courses at challenging the tee shot, keeping it in the desert SW,  Talking Stick was very effective at this as well, though not as fun/rewarding.  Maybe Tom knows what he is doing