IMHO, and in the big picture, basically, Mac was the first to conceptualize bunkers as pieces of art, throwing out the concept of "natural looking" to make his designs more attractive to the eye. I can hear him say, "Of course they aren't natural!" But, who cares? Apparently, not the next five generations of golfers.
Some guys, like Ross, were so conservative by nature, those extravagances never seemed to cross their mind, until perhaps much later, a la Seminole. I always had the feeling he was more or less forced into it, as others became more relevant to the gca scene. (I would have to look up the number of commissions by year for several gca's to prove that, I realize.)
I think he probably was a revolutionary at that time as Dye was later, but it's all speculation, of course. And, he was revolutionary again after 1930, when he realized that a plethora of bunkers was putting many courses out of business, and started designing with fewer. I have little doubt his design concept for ANGC had much to do with anything other than budget, but again, I could be wrong. And, only important bunkers that affected play became the mantra for the next 40+ years (to at least 1977 when I entered the biz) Not even RTJ or Wilson dare put random bunkers that "weren't in play", they just doubled up the number of bunkers at the LZ and green, LOL, not.
So, I hate to call names, but if anyone were bunker sluts, maybe its gca's in my era (started my firm in 1984, just as the boom was getting going) who brought back Mac's more prolific and shapely design style when the money started flowing similar to the 1920's, and were only held back by the recession of 2000 and 2006+. Hey, I've been called worse!
