The bunker’s smarter sibling

[Ben Sims]

Bunkers get all the attention. I get it…they tend to define golf holes in a way that’s upfront and easily discussed. And like many things, form is more easily critiqued and judged than function.


But what about above ground features? They’re the smart sibling in my view. Rarely do people talk about what a mound near the green or “chocolate drops” in the rough looks like. They talk about where it is located and how it impacts play.


At CommonGround this week, my father-in-law and brother-in-law were smitten with how much a few of the grassy mounds dictated their decision-making. I rather enjoyed them not having a clue what to do based on a little bit of hidden ground and elevated hazard. I’m glad to see the social media photos of Old Barnwell also featuring some above ground, ahem, features.

[Steve Lang]

   Ben,
So the $64,000 question, in retrospect, did they see the challenges as unfair?

[Thomas Dai]

Lots of nice things about modest mounds, wee humps and gentle contouring especially when combined with short cut grass. Not so keen on the more vertical chocolate drop variety especially as they are usually covered in longer grass.
Contours are fun. They may not be amazingly photogenic, a seeming necessity these days, but they are also a lot less expensive and time consuming to maintain than sand bunkers.

Atb

[Mark_Fine]

I said this quite a while ago but one of the above ground features that is going to make a comeback are trees.  It is an aerial game in many cases.  Why not more aerial hazards or bunkers in the sky as RTJ called them?  Trees, if selected properly and utilized well, can be a great strategic hazard.  They can also be poorly and overly used just like bunkers or any other hazard. 

[Kalen Braley]

While I've never played a course with them, I've always been intrigued by the mounds DMK put in at Tetherow.

[Sean_A]

I said this quite a while ago but one of the above ground features that is going to make a comeback are trees.  It is an aerial game in many cases.  Why not more aerial hazards or bunkers in the sky as RTJ called them?  Trees, if selected properly and utilized well, can be a great strategic hazard.  They can also be poorly and overly used just like bunkers or any other hazard.

Trees have never gone away. It's a select number of clubs which have eradicated trees. There are tons of courses with tree issues.

Ciao

[Thomas Dai]

Trees have never gone away. It's a select number of clubs which have eradicated trees. There are tons of courses with tree issues.
Ciao

Yip, and consequences like lessor sword quality, leaf clearance and drains blocked by roots etc.
atb

[Rob Marshall]

Its been a long time but I think it was Transit Valley in Buffalo that a rows of mounds in strategic places on a few holes. Could have been Glen Falls but I think it was Transit.

[David_Tepper]

The mound that fronts the left side of the 12th green at Royal Dornoch is one of the best architectural features on the course.

[Ira Fishman]

The knob on the front left at 7 at Pasatiempo is terrific. And I really appreciated the mounding and depressions on the right side of the fairway at 15 at Nairn.

[Bruce Katona]

Given my naturally low ball flight, trees are always my friend unless I can recover under, not over them.  I enjoy playing courses that have ground contours which can be to a players benefit, along with chocolate drops, He!!'s Half Acre and many other more traditional obstacles.


A tree lined course needs to have escape routes for me, if I hit a wayward shot.  Bomb & gauge never was my game, even when younder.

[Ben Sims]

  Ben,
So the $64,000 question, in retrospect, did they see the challenges as unfair?

I wouldn’t say unfair. Even though I haven’t played CG in 11 years or so, I had a distinct advantage knowing some of Renaissance’s tendencies. I think some of the holes were just riddles to them cause they’d never seen anything like it. Afterwards I realized how one plays—and how they are “tricked” into bad decisions—has an outsized impact in how you view a course for many people. I guess I always knew that, but hasn’t really seen it in action.

[Ben Sims]

I said this quite a while ago but one of the above ground features that is going to make a comeback are trees.  It is an aerial game in many cases.  Why not more aerial hazards or bunkers in the sky as RTJ called them?  Trees, if selected properly and utilized well, can be a great strategic hazard.  They can also be poorly and overly used just like bunkers or any other hazard.

Mark, there are several trees that impact play at the course I’m referring to. They are typically solitary and force a decision, rather than a rote recovery. In that way, I think trees are fine.