Tom, what I said about the PN at Piping Rock was not to imply that you and Pete removed it. I could have phrased it better I suppose.
I said, “there was one on #1 Piping Rock - taken out and Dye/Doak wanted to put it on #10. and as stated, the club rejected the idea.” ....not meaning you took it out but that the club had removed it over the years.
My take on the PN bunker complex used by Macdonald and Raynor (I don’t think Banks ever used it anywhere)is that they used it in a different context or strategy than at TOC’s 16th hole. There it was/is basically in the landing area as the key architectural feature to be played short of,
played over, or to either side of - each situation presenting a different problem to be solved - this
before the emergence of the new equipment. The right side only has about 15-yards between it and the railroad line. On the Old Course the PN bunker complex was originally located IN the prime landing area between the 170 and 190-yards off the tee-ball.
IMHO CB and SR used the PN feature in a totally different manner. It seems they were attempting to create a bit of a distraction, if not an annoyance to the player, on his approach to the double plateau green complex. This was mostly because of its height rather than the three sand hazards within. Their PN bunker complexes were usually placed about half way between the better golfer’s tee-ball landing area and the green - this usually 50 to 75 yards short of the green. I think it was also used by them as sort of eye-candy (it is a very attractive feature).
Ironically, when positioned in this manner, it was a major problem for the less skilled golfer (this was also often the case with their positioning of diagonal cross bunkering across a fairway in second shot landing areas).
There were a couple of exceptions that come to mind.
On original hole-6 (now hole-8) of the Fairyland Golf Club - now Lookout Mountain - it was about 250 yards off the tee on a hole that was originally 330-yards long. In the context of the 1920's, with firm ground, it was possibly reachable. It was dead on the centerline of play on the
original very wide fairway. I’m not sure where it would sit on that course considering the present fairway width and mowing patterns.
At Yeamans Hall there seems to have been a PN on the first hole just short of the entrance road that cut across the fairway. Here it was well off to the left of the center line - looks like it was at the left edge of the fairway. It seems to have been used more as a target bunker for the golfer’s tee-ball. If is was reestablished in that position today it would be in play off the tee.
I used this complex on a 285-yard par-4, positioning it so the front of the PN complex is 225-yards off the tee but it would take a 240-yard carry to clear it. There is a very narrow area to the left between it and the off-fairway underbrush and OB. The green is canted favorably accept a
shot from the narrow left from that area. From the wider area right of the complex the golfer has to clear a deep bunker greenside and a green is not the least bit appealing to play to. The smart golfer (hah) should lay up short of the bunker and pitch to the green but I was counting on his
ego, hoping to temp him to blow it over the bunker attempting to reach the green on his tee shot -
a driveable par-4 with a major hazard in the prime landing area. This offers four options on a 285-yard hole.