Is bunkering becoming more important in today's architecture?

[Tommy Williamsen]

I have no statistics to back this up, just my own observations. TD and C/C, and Steve Smyers seem to use bunkering to test the players ability to strategize. It seems that RTJ used water more than bunkering to defend a hole. I have played more than a dozen TD&C/C courses. I include Smyers because I used to belong to Four Streams and have played a few other courses of his. He loves bunkers. After playing some of Tom Fazio's recent courses it seems that he is using sand more than he used to.
Do you think this is true, or is it my imagination?

[Sean_A]

Bunkering has always been important for architecture...in terms of function and aesthetics.  I think what is happening in this so called renaissance period is that naturalism/minimalism has showcased bunkering much in the same way it was done 100 years ago.  Many of the high profile examples of the type are built on sand and so it makes sense to showcase sand.  However, it is the wannabees which often look odd with bunkers all over the place...often times with squiggly lines which seriously stands out.  Its very odd because that style is employed to fit in with the environment on sandy sites...so one would think better a suited style would be employed for parkland sites...one which really conceals the obviousness of the unnatural feature that sand is. 

Anyway...no, I think bunkers are about as important as ever.  I am eagerly awaiting that time when this isn't the case.

Ciao

[Tom_Doak]

I have no statistics to back this up, just my own observations. TD and C/C, and Steve Smyers seem to use bunkering to test the players ability to strategize. It seems that RTJ used water more than bunkering to defend a hole. I have played more than a dozen TD&C/C courses. I include Smyers because I used to belong to Four Streams and have played a few other courses of his. He loves bunkers. After playing some of Tom Fazio's recent courses it seems that he is using sand more than he used to.
Do you think this is true, or is it my imagination?

Tommy:

Our over/under for Houston is 25 bunkers.  It's on clay, and having a lot of bunkers would mean $$$$ for bunker liners, imported sand, etc.

In general, when I've worked on heavier soils, I've built fewer bunkers, out of concern that the bunkers would get contaminated and require regular reconstruction.  Courses like Cape Kidnappers and Beechtree and Quail Crossing and The Rawls Course don't have a lot of bunkering.  Stonewall was an exception - it's also in heavy soils but every other course in Philadelphia had flashy bunkering and they wanted it, too.

[But, you'll notice that these are generally not my most famous or highly-ranked courses.  Whether that's because of the clay, or the lack of eye candy, I can't say for sure, but I'd bet it's some of both.]

None of us is a big fan of water hazards.  [I still have a letter from Ben, c. 1982, where he is gushing about Royal Melbourne and how they have 36 holes with no water hazards ! ]

But Bill & Ben and I have also built a lot of courses on sand, where the cost of construction of a bunker is very low -- though the cost of keeping sand in them is pretty high, on our windier sites.  We tend to build more bunkers when it's that easy, and those tend to be the courses you see more in the magazines:  Sand Hills, Friars Head, Ballyneal, Barnbougle, Pacific Dunes, etc.  But I can tell you for a fact, if the new standard is that all of those bunkers need to be lined with drainage and capillary concrete, I'm not going to build nearly so many of them from here on out. 

I would rather have open sand at the margins of the course than long grass, so it's easier to find your ball.  Technically, there are no bunkers at Tara Iti, but I will grant that there is a lot of sand.  [After all, it's all sand.]

[Willie_Dow]

At my tender age, 90, and playing "forward", I really respect bunker"s and their location, and how they react to my second shot on the par fours.  The big hitters, like Wayne Morrison, whom I enjoy putting way back, but also invite him to play "up front", really bring good bunker location into play.


Think about it !

[Thomas Dai]

Has the use of sand in terms of waste areas and more recently open sandy areas increased with the more widespread use of colour film and colour publications and more recently the digital age and the social media era? Yellow usually looks nice next to green.

Atb

[Mark_Fine]

Tommy,
Just played Chechesee Creek this afternoon.  As Tom said, it is one of those sandy sites but I counted 70 or so bunkers on the golf course and most of them play a role above and beyond eye candy in the design. 


I think bunkers will always be a part of golf courses but less can be more and the trend due to cost might be fewer numbers of them.  Note:  I have played several Steve Smyers designs and I think quite a few bunkers would not be missed if they were removed. His trademark high flashed sand has to be a bear to maintain. 


Mark

[Mike_Young]

IMHO the modern bunker has made golf easier for the good player than if the same area was short grassed.  As players hit it further IMHO the "short side" is one of the few ways to protect and bunkers so often keep a ball from running further from a green than if sand stops it...the color contrast is what gets in our head and makes people think sand is so much more difficult..JMO
Also, Mark F..don't think Chechessee is a very sandy site..some small areas but mostly lots of silty ,clay, gumbo mix.

[Peter Pallotta]

But when I think of some of the old, essentially water-hazard-free GB&I courses like many on the Open rota, I think of the kinds/severity of bunkers there that essentially served the same 'penal' function as one of RTJ's ponds. The golf ball itself isn't lost forever in a watery grave, but getting into/out of of a deep, sod-faced pot bunker is going cost most of us the same one stroke as a pond would.
Which is to say: I think the main question isn't whether or not there are more bunkers today (or whether they're a 'more important' part of the architect's toolkit than in the past), but instead how and why those bunkers are being used by today's designers 
P 

[Mark_Fine]

Mike,
You could be right.  Some of the "out of play" areas (won't tell you how I got there) seemed quite sandy to me. 
Mark

[Tommy Williamsen]

It makes sense that courses on sand have more bunkers. Bunkers on clay are expensive to maintain. I think Ballyhack has about 80 bunkers, but the sandy clay is natural and they are installing Billy bunkers around the green sites. I played a course in Hawaii last year that is turning half of their sand bunkers into grass bunkers. So, is Old Town on Sand? Did Bill Coore add bunkers? I seem to remember Dunlop telling me he had. But like many things recently I get easily confused. Chechesee, Dormie, Colorado GC, and Hidden Creek have bunches of bunkers. I guess Dormie is on sand. Are Hidden Creek and Colorado GC?

[Mike_Young]

Mike,
You could be right.  Some of the "out of play" areas (won't tell you how I got there) seemed quite sandy to me. 
Mark

I did a teaching center/putting/practice tee at the back of the practice area and enlarged the main tee along with back tees on 10 and 11 and there was a lot of clay in all of those places.  I think the top 1 or 2 inches filter out and become a cleaner sand but beneath it is a little messy.  I was a member there for a few years but just could not get there enough but is still one of my favorites..

[Don Mahaffey]

There is this huge crop of young shapers that love to build bunkers...even if most of them build the same bunker over and over

[Ian Andrew]

It's more important for getting work because today's society is very visually based.

They are far less important in today's game because the hazards are so perfectly maintained that they no longer represent a shot lost unless an exceptional recovery shot is made.

[mike_beene]

In America, thanks to the golf channel in part, we see many more sand belt courses over a year, plus now some good restorations, adding in the trend to mow the oppressive greenside rough and we start seeing bunkers in a more important role.

[Erik J. Barzeski]

IMHO the modern bunker has made golf easier for the good player than if the same area was short grassed.

I disagree with short grassed*, but agree if you are talking about rough. Bunkers for better players (like the evenly maintained and prepared bunkers on the PGA Tour) are easier than unpredictable rough.

* Unless you mean short grass because it feeds the ball away from the hole, but otherwise… short grass is still easier to play from than most bunkers. The lie and contact is predictable, and you have more variety of shots - bump and runs, etc.

Strokes Gained stuff bears this out too. Pros from 20 and 40 yards are about 0.2 strokes better from "fairway" than "sand". (Basically the same from 20 and 40 from sand and rough.)

[Mike_Young]

IMHO the modern bunker has made golf easier for the good player than if the same area was short grassed.

I disagree with short grassed*, but agree if you are talking about rough. Bunkers for better players (like the evenly maintained and prepared bunkers on the PGA Tour) are easier than unpredictable rough.

* Unless you mean short grass because it feeds the ball away from the hole, but otherwise… short grass is still easier to play from than most bunkers. The lie and contact is predictable, and you have more variety of shots - bump and runs, etc.

Strokes Gained stuff bears this out too. Pros from 20 and 40 yards are about 0.2 strokes better from "fairway" than "sand". (Basically the same from 20 and 40 from sand and rough.)

Hmmm...I am saying the short grass areas around a green allow for the ball to move away from the green much further than sand.  And IMHO short grass is easier for the higher handicap player but a good, well maintained , tour type bunker would be welcomed over a short grass run off area next to a green by the scratch player...JMO

[Tim Martin]

I have no statistics to back this up, just my own observations. TD and C/C, and Steve Smyers seem to use bunkering to test the players ability to strategize. It seems that RTJ used water more than bunkering to defend a hole. I have played more than a dozen TD&C/C courses. I include Smyers because I used to belong to Four Streams and have played a few other courses of his. He loves bunkers. After playing some of Tom Fazio's recent courses it seems that he is using sand more than he used to.
Do you think this is true, or is it my imagination?

Tommy:

Our over/under for Houston is 25 bunkers.  It's on clay, and having a lot of bunkers would mean $$$$ for bunker liners, imported sand, etc.

In general, when I've worked on heavier soils, I've built fewer bunkers, out of concern that the bunkers would get contaminated and require regular reconstruction.  Courses like Cape Kidnappers and Beechtree and Quail Crossing and The Rawls Course don't have a lot of bunkering.  Stonewall was an exception - it's also in heavy soils but every other course in Philadelphia had flashy bunkering and they wanted it, too.

[But, you'll notice that these are generally not my most famous or highly-ranked courses.  Whether that's because of the clay, or the lack of eye candy, I can't say for sure, but I'd bet it's some of both.]

None of us is a big fan of water hazards.  [I still have a letter from Ben, c. 1982, where he is gushing about Royal Melbourne and how they have 36 holes with no water hazards ! ]

But Bill & Ben and I have also built a lot of courses on sand, where the cost of construction of a bunker is very low -- though the cost of keeping sand in them is pretty high, on our windier sites.  We tend to build more bunkers when it's that easy, and those tend to be the courses you see more in the magazines:  Sand Hills, Friars Head, Ballyneal, Barnbougle, Pacific Dunes, etc.  But I can tell you for a fact, if the new standard is that all of those bunkers need to be lined with drainage and capillary concrete, I'm not going to build nearly so many of them from here on out. 

I would rather have open sand at the margins of the course than long grass, so it's easier to find your ball.  Technically, there are no bunkers at Tara Iti, but I will grant that there is a lot of sand.  [After all, it's all sand.]

Tom-Is the “through the green” feature at Tara Iti something you would repeat on a similar site? I haven’t played there or been to New Zealand but the site specific requirement seems to fit perfectly as it does at Kiawah Ocean. I’ve looked at whatever photos I could find and you must have felt like your ship had come in when you first laid eyes on that property.

[Tom_Doak]

Tom-Is the “through the green” feature at Tara Iti something you would repeat on a similar site? . . .
I’ve looked at whatever photos I could find and you must have felt like your ship had come in when you first laid eyes on that property.

It was all a dense pine plantation the first time I laid eyes on the property, so not really!


Tara Iti was WAY MORE work to build than Barnbougle or Pacific Dunes.

[Mark_Fine]

The condition (not the quality) of the greens and the aesthetic of the bunkers are the two of most lasting aspects of a golf course to the far majority of golfers.  If the greens roll perfect, they will remember.  If the bunkers are visually appealing, they will remember.  No right or wrong just stating what I believe to be true.