Grass Bunkers

[RSLivingston_III]

I think you would be hard pressed to find a grass bunker made as original on a pre-1930 course. If you think it is go out and use a soil probe to find out. I think you can also see the lumpy overfill on top of the sand if it is mown short enough.
I should say this in reference to US courses 1900-1930

[Jon Wiggett]

Ralph,

I would imagine you are right. Up until the invention of the sand wedge and raking bunkers, sand shots were things to fear. It is only in the last few decades that sand shots have become some easy.

[Evan_Smith]

The first time I saw grass bunkers that I believe were integrated into the design and not "grassed in bunkers" was at The Cardinal in Greensboro NC.  It's one of Pete Dye's earlier courses and he had low spots around the greens grow long with Bermuda rough.  They look really cool, and are tough to play out of.  I'm pretty sure I took some photos a few years ago, but I believe they're at my parents house.  When I'm home next I'll try to dig them up.

This photo is from Brampton CC, which is NW of Toronto.  I don't know a lot of the history of the current course (which is a C.E. 'Robbie' Robinson design) to say if this was an original design feature or not.  I really like the look this gave the hole.  They do look like grassed in bunkers, but they also could have been added later.  Ian Andrew may know the answer since he's been doing some neat bunker remodelling on this course.
Brampton 5th Green

[Tom_Doak]

You don't see a lot of grass bunkers on older courses because on most sites they did not expect to install a lot of drainage, so they didn't build any features which would have required it, other than sand bunkers.

I've never been a fan of grass bunkers because I wanted my courses to look old, and grass bunkers don't look old to me.  We did make an exception on the new course in Scotland, where finding lots of little grass pockets in the ground is pretty standard.  But, in general, where someone else might use a grass bunker, I'd just use a bit of contour (a small mound or a sharp dip, but not a real pocket) mowed at rough height.  

[wsmorrison]

Merion West has a lot of grass bunkers that never did have sand in them.  Holes 1,2,4,7,9,12 and 16 have them.  Below are some photos that may not show them very well.  I'll go out and take some pictures of them for posting later.

1st hole (grassy bunker on right)



2nd hole



7th hole



12th hole (grassy bunker not so visible on right)



16th hole

[Jon Wiggett]

Wayne,

thanks for taking the trouble to post the pictures. Some very interesting examples.

Tom,

If I understand what you are saying you want to avoid a formal or artificial look to a grass bunker/depression but I would say that this is something that is desirable even with a lot of the sand bunkers. Obviously it would be ridiculous to have a grass bunker with a revetted face and when I think of a grass bunker it is more in the lines of a hollow or depression. Nor does it necessarily need to be rough height.