Heather Topped Bunkers?

[Duncan Cheslett]

I had a long and very interesting chat with our Head Greenkeeper Nick Wilde this week, and he outlined his intentions over the next few years to restore the course to its heathland origins by aggressive tree felling and the encouragement of heather and fine grasses. He has already detected heather regenerating in areas where trees and scrub have been cleared after lying dormant for many years.


This winter however, his priority has been drainage, and as part of this programme the iconic tenth green has been stripped, new drains laid, and returfed. This green is a classic two-tier affair of the type now known as a "MacKenzie Green". It happens to be the very first of this style ever designed by Dr MacKenzie - in 1913.


The long bunker guarding the green has also out of necessity been completely re-built. This is what it used to look like.









And this is what Nick has done with it





I think he's done a fine job. His worry however, is the heather planted on the top. Negative comments have been made and he was anxious for my opinion. I'm reserving judgement until it has grown in a little but I'd love to know what the experts here think.


Heather or no heather?

[John Connolly]

I think the rebuilt bunkers look fantastic in terms of their contours, lips and turf. But I do not think the heather is additive. It's distracting and disrupts the great contouring. Just my 2 cents.

[Martin Lehmann]

In my view it's a huge improvement. I like the clean shape of the bunker (in contrast to the fashionable rough edged bunkers, that are expensive to maintain) in combination with the heather 'eyebrows'. We try to do the same at our golf course, with tall fescue instead of heather. Not all players like it, especially when their errant shots are caught by the long stuff, but it adds a lot to the character of the course. And I keep telling them that the fescue is part of the hazard. Who said that golf should be easy and fair?

[Rich Goodale]

I think that heather and/or tall fescue on the tops of bunkers are just eye candy with negative than redeeming value.  No golfer wants to play a recivery shot from gunge at the top of a steep bunker, particularly if it gives him or her no or little possible of a stance, and "rewards" the shorter (poorer) approach which lands in the bunker itself.  IMHO.

[Thomas Dai]

I like the sound of the intentions Duncan generally describes. Good luck with the work.

As to the bunker tops, these regularly seem to become dried-out, very bare and grass-less so heather (or fescue) across the top is fine by me. Heather (and fescue) also raises the effective bunker lip by a few inches/foot or so which alters the eyeline of the approach shot into the green.

atb

[Niall C]

Duncan

FWIW and in general terms trying to get back to a heathland type course has to be applauded if only because it would hopefully produce a drier course. To my mind heathland courses should be rugged and natural. With that in mind the heather on top of that bunker looks out of place, it looks isolated. In fact it looks cultivated if that's the appropriate term. If you had a fairway bunker on the side of the fairway with heather beside and the heather sort of wrapped round on top of the bunker in a natural looking way then fine, but here it looks wrong. It was much better before IMO.

The other aspect is the rebuilding of the bunker. It was much better before in terms of the overhanging top lip which made it look like a natural type blowout. I believe that was the look Colt tried to achieve and I think he described it as though the ground had been gouged out to produce the bunker. To my eye it looked epic before, and afterwards........well, it could have been anywhere. The only negative comment I'd make about the before bunker is that the front lip is too straight across and level. He doesn't seem to have touched it for the redo.

Sorry, if that sounds negative but I wish your guy well with getting back to more of a heathland style.

Niall

[Adam Lawrence]

I approve of the intention, but I don't think the actuality is very good.


Firstly, on a MacKenzie course, the sand line should be much higher. I know that creates more work for the maintenance crew, but if you want to preserve a Mac heritage it is what it is.


Secondly the wavy edge of the bunker is not great. If you're going for a highly shaped bunker, in my opinion you have to bite the bullet and go the whole hog with the frilly, random edge. These multiple curves don't work for me at all. The alternative is to have a much simpler shape and allow the heather to create the randomness by coming down and forming the edge for you.


Finally the heather is anaemic. I realise it has just been planted but nonetheless if you want heather topped bunkers again you need to go the whole hog and plant the stuff all along the top. It will -- or it might -- spread in time, but equally it's likely that not all the heather plants will take. You need to go banco.


It's also ideal to use heather to tie the bunker in to the out of play areas. Islands of heather surrounded by short grass often look a bit feeble. Either way, you need MORE of it.


Edited to add: I basically agree entirely with Niall who posted while I was typing mine up.

[Jim Hoak]

I like the look of the new bunker.
But I'd like to comment on bunker "eyebrows" or "eye lashes."  I was led to believe that they were originally installed on seaside, windy courses to reduce sand blowing out of the bunker.  I think taller fescue, wispy grass around bunkers on most parkland courses is pretentious.
This low heather looks fine.

[Tim Martin]

Duncan-I like the look of the redesigned bunker. That said I don't know how high that particular strain of heather will grow but I doubt MacKenzie's design intent was to make the player not only extricate himself from the bunker but to play the shot on a specific trajectory. Anything taller than a foot or so seems to be overkill and appears to be an option killer.

[Duncan Cheslett]

Thank you for the responses so far; opinions are, as I suspected, divided not only on the heather but on the shaping of the new bunker.


The bunker was not rebuilt simply for aesthetic reasons. It had become impossible to maintain and the drainage was shot. It was hard pan in dry weather and flooded at the first hint of rain. As the adjacent green was having its drainage renewed, doing the bunker at the same time was an obvious plan.  Here is another, less flattering photo of the old, much disliked bunker.





Inevitably, as it was the greenkeeper doing the rebuild and the shaping, future maintenance played a large part in the design. The great thing is that we now have a well-built and well-drained bunker at minimal expense. The sand-line and/or shape of the face can easily be tweaked; the fundamentals at least have been successfully addressed.


Ideally we would engage an experienced architect with a track record in MacKenzie course renovations to advise us on the aesthetics of this and future essential bunker work. Unfortunately the club finances are such that this kind of expenditure will be difficult to justify to the membership - particularly the "vocal" ones!


We are however, working on it!


Keep the comments coming. They are extremely useful.

[Sean_A]

Duncan

I am not sold on the bunker.  It seems to me that heather topped bunkers are meant to tie the feature into nearby heather rough.  Does Reddish Vale have heather?  If so, I would properly test the concept out on bunkers near existing heather.  If heather is nearby, it won't much matter how much heather tops the bunker because each bunker would be different, thereby creating a more random appearance.

Bays have been created for heather to drop down toward the sand, but the heather wasn't planted.  Why? 

Did Reddish Vale once have loads of heather?  If so, I would look to re-introduce heather and then tie the bunkers in.  If not, or if the club doesn't have the funds to do the job properly, I would back off the concept. 


Look at this tour of New Zealand.  The club does a good job of tying in the sand to the heather rough by using heather on top of bunkers.
http://www.golfclubatlas.com/forum/index.php/topic,36467.msg745045.html#msg745045
 
Ciao