News:

This discussion group is best enjoyed using Google Chrome, Firefox or Safari.



Tom Bacsanyi

  • Karma: +0/-0
Re: Rethinking Bunker Maintenance
« Reply #1 on: June 29, 2018, 12:39:44 PM »
Good stuff there.  Another opportunity is to focus on the playability of greenside bunkers over fairway bunkers. Golfers get grumpiest when they aren't able to get under the ball in a greenside trap, but firm almost hardpan bunkers are preferable when playing a full shot.  So there is much less need to fluff and add sand to fairway bunkers, which tend to be larger as well.  Leave them hardpan-y.  A slightly fat shot is still punished, so is a thin shot that catches the face/lip, and you are still out of position and in a hole essentially. 


The article fails to mention bunker drainage, which is basically the root of all evils in bunker maintenance.  Bunkers can drain poorly for a number of reasons, blown liners, clogged lines, compaction, contamination etc.  If a bunker drains poorly then it will never play well consistently, period. Short of digging the whole thing up and renovating, your only recourse is to constantly add sand, and constantly rake by hand.  But you are just burying the problem. 
Don't play too much golf. Two rounds a day are plenty.

--Harry Vardon

Thomas Dai

  • Karma: +0/-0
Re: Rethinking Bunker Maintenance
« Reply #2 on: June 29, 2018, 12:57:16 PM »
They're a hazard. So is a pond or a stream, and you don't get a manicured lie in a pond or a stream.
Scruffy, unraked and with the option of a penalty drop* if the player doesn't reckon they can get out ought to be the approach, like it once was.
Too much "get in the bunker" heard on TV (and even within amateur playing groups). Much more exciting to see 'the stars' on TV try to get out of a difficult situation.
And how much time and money is spent on bunker maintenance as a proportion of overall course maintenance budgets in a period when comments are regularly heard about the game being too expensive for many to take-up or even continue playing?
Rant over....at least for now! :)
atb


* and is coming back within the RoG on 1st Jan I believe
« Last Edit: June 29, 2018, 03:16:02 PM by Thomas Dai »

Jeff Schley

  • Karma: +0/-0
Re: Rethinking Bunker Maintenance
« Reply #3 on: June 29, 2018, 02:57:36 PM »
I remember when the Greg Norman Course at PGA West first opened up back around 2000.  He had native grasses and flowers growing in the bunkers and everyone HATED it for it was so penal.  I thought it was very pretty to look, gorgeous really, except when I look at them up close the 9 or so times I found one.   ;D   However, I knew enough to avoid them, just didn't execute so no complaints.
"To give anything less than your best, is to sacrifice your gifts."
- Steve Prefontaine

Mark Chaplin

  • Karma: +0/-0
Re: Rethinking Bunker Maintenance
« Reply #4 on: June 29, 2018, 03:25:25 PM »
Martin Ebert has taken out a couple of greenside bunkers at Royal St George’s, in order, so I understand, to make the course harder for better players. Grassy hollows being much harder to execute a good shot from than a manicured bunker.
Cave Nil Vino

Jon Wiggett

  • Karma: +0/-0
Re: Rethinking Bunker Maintenance
« Reply #5 on: June 30, 2018, 02:15:39 AM »
Martin Ebert has taken out a couple of greenside bunkers at Royal St George’s, in order, so I understand, to make the course harder for better players. Grassy hollows being much harder to execute a good shot from than a manicured bunker.



I've been saying this for years. Hollows with steep sides that you can putt out of are easier for the average player but harder for the low handicapper than a bunker.

Dave Doxey

  • Karma: +0/-0
Re: Rethinking Bunker Maintenance
« Reply #6 on: July 01, 2018, 08:58:24 AM »
First world problem. My local course has bunkers that are half mud/water & half dry hardpan.  I keep waiting for the magazine bunker tips to stop recommending hitting inches behind the ball and tell players how to hit out of a hardpan bunker when the ball is between a rock and a cigar butt.

Tom_Doak

  • Karma: +2/-1
Re: Rethinking Bunker Maintenance
« Reply #7 on: July 01, 2018, 09:13:01 AM »
It's a good article ... in marked contrast to the same organization encouraging potential US Open hosts to line bunkers with asphalt or concrete as part of eight-figure renovations.


But there has always been some tension between what the Green Section recommends, and what the Championship Committee does on national TV. 

Niall C

  • Karma: +0/-0
Re: Rethinking Bunker Maintenance
« Reply #8 on: July 02, 2018, 01:56:05 PM »
“We use a mechanized bunker rake to make the raking process as efficient as possible and every member of our team pitches in where they can, but we aren’t going to be able to get to every footprint every day. We accept that, and it seems like the golfers do, too.”

This begs the question: do players routinely walk out of bunkers without raking behind them ?

The other thing was the mention of the Aussie bunker method where the face is basically a hardpan such that the ball always runs back to the flat bottom. Apart from the lack of variety, if you are more or less guaranteed a favourable lie, it kind of lessens the benefit of strategy, does it not ?

Niall

Brad Payne

  • Karma: +0/-0
Re: Rethinking Bunker Maintenance
« Reply #9 on: July 02, 2018, 02:21:51 PM »
Not to take this off topic, but my course in SF, Presidio, recently introduced robots for mowing greens and it has made a huge difference in the quality of the bunkers.  The greens guys tend to the bunkers while the robot is mowing.  Before all of our bunkers were so fluffy and inconsistent that 90% of the time you'd end up with a buried or partially buried ball whether in the flat or the face.  Playing Saturday, I could actually hit a sand shot and get up and down.  What a concept!  I'll be interested in how the robot mowers impact other areas of maintenance in the future, by allowing for multiple tasks to be completed at once.
Founder and CEO, Walker Trolleys
We are creating the most beautiful, high-end golf push cart for the player, purist, aficionado that appreciates style, form and functionality and chooses to walk the game.
https://www.walkertrolleys.com

Cal Seifert

  • Karma: +0/-0
Re: Rethinking Bunker Maintenance
« Reply #10 on: July 02, 2018, 08:24:12 PM »
Not to take this off topic, but my course in SF, Presidio, recently introduced robots for mowing greens and it has made a huge difference in the quality of the bunkers.  The greens guys tend to the bunkers while the robot is mowing.  Before all of our bunkers were so fluffy and inconsistent that 90% of the time you'd end up with a buried or partially buried ball whether in the flat or the face.  Playing Saturday, I could actually hit a sand shot and get up and down.  What a concept!  I'll be interested in how the robot mowers impact other areas of maintenance in the future, by allowing for multiple tasks to be completed at once.


here is a great article by Andy Johnson on the concept of the robotic mowers for those interested.
http://www.friedegg.co/golf-courses/robotic-mowers?rq=robot

Tom Bacsanyi

  • Karma: +0/-0
Re: Rethinking Bunker Maintenance
« Reply #11 on: July 03, 2018, 10:27:29 PM »

So now the robots get to do the fun job while the laborer gets to do the crap work.  Skynet has become self aware.


(Walk mowing greens is a large majority of golf course workers fave tasks, bunkers...nah)

Not to take this off topic, but my course in SF, Presidio, recently introduced robots for mowing greens and it has made a huge difference in the quality of the bunkers.  The greens guys tend to the bunkers while the robot is mowing.  Before all of our bunkers were so fluffy and inconsistent that 90% of the time you'd end up with a buried or partially buried ball whether in the flat or the face.  Playing Saturday, I could actually hit a sand shot and get up and down.  What a concept!  I'll be interested in how the robot mowers impact other areas of maintenance in the future, by allowing for multiple tasks to be completed at once.


here is a great article by Andy Johnson on the concept of the robotic mowers for those interested.
http://www.friedegg.co/golf-courses/robotic-mowers?rq=robot
Don't play too much golf. Two rounds a day are plenty.

--Harry Vardon

Greg Chambers

  • Karma: +0/-0
Re: Rethinking Bunker Maintenance
« Reply #12 on: July 04, 2018, 12:27:12 AM »
It won’t be long until the robots are doing all the jobs, Tom.  It’ll just be you and your dog and the computer that tells em all what to do...beats the heck out of dealing with the drama ;)
"It's good sportsmanship to not pick up lost golf balls while they are still rolling.”

Tags:
Tags:

An Error Has Occurred!

Call to undefined function theme_linktree()
Back