...well-executed recoveries should put the player in a position where they have a chance to rectify their not executing on the previous shot, no?
No. There should be only miraculous oportunities for undoing all of the prior sin. The well-executed recovery should allow the player to get back into the playing field of the hole for its completion but should not be a free pass. The half shot or full shot penalty for the prior bad shot should not be easy to expunge from one's scorecard during the play of the hole on which it was incurred.
HAZARDS ARE NOT SUPPOSED TO BE FAIR! They shoulb be hazardous and scary as hell. The player who blames finding the hazard because of a misplayed line, slice or hook, forgets that he or she also found it because they chose to play a club which brought it into play. If you are don't like a part of the course, don't hit it there! Granted half stroke hazards can be more enjoyable but the golfer's diet should have a healthy mix of full, half and two stroke hazards in its composition so that the player must stay alert and not be allowed to presuppose the test every hazard on the course will require.
Cheers!
JT
Jim-
I see your response as oversimplifying mine; I agree with you that hazards shouldn't be 'fair'. Golf isn't necessarily 'fair'. That's fine.
In my first response to you, I disagreed with your point that "Someone...every shot...played towards the hole". I partially disagree. I feel hazards can offer an option of recovery--I feel chipping/pitching out every time one lands in one is a bit redundant and takes the 'fun' away from golf.
I feel, and we may be in concert with each other, that a recovery from a bunker may not always necessarily offer the ability to, say, hit the green in regulation, but taking a lesser club out, and then a well-placed third or fourth may offer the chance to save par.
Here's a few examples;
Playing Bethpage Black 10th hole, I pushed my drive right into the large bunker up the right side. Seeing as the lie was iffy and I had about 210 to the center of the green, I decided to take 9-iron, to ensure getting out in one, and playing short of the end of the fairway-leaving a wedge approach in.
I'm not saying I should necessarily always be given the opportunity to hit the green from the bunker, 210 yards away. But it could be an option, but could not as well.
Another example-playing Rolling Green, 18th hole, the line of play is generally thought to be left of the fairway bunker. (Right, Wayne and Mike?) With my length, I tried to carry it--and failed. I landed in the bunker. Because of the trees on the right side, outside the line of the bunker but with branches extending past, my only play was to punch a wedge out into the fairway, where I had maybe 180 uphill to the green.
I'm not totally opposed to the trees up the right side; I feel, with a smart recovery and well-played third, I have an opportunity in either case to make par or even birdie (if playing the hole as a par 5) The proper line of play, I believe, is to the left side of the fairway.
At my college course, Rutgers GC, there are several places where larger trees are within the outside lines of bunkers (drawing a line parallel to the line of play), and landing in a bunker also subjects the golfer to tree trouble. In this case, the only shot is a pitchout, and here I feel it's a bit gimmicky