[TEPaul]

Check out the Australian Open (starting today) at Victoria thread to hopefully see what a set up, restoration and firm and fast that might hit the "ideal maintenace meld" is REALLY all about!

Anybody interested in this important maintenance and restoration practice should tune in to watch the Australian Open!

Email and call those with influence at your clubs to tune in and watch too.

[redanman]

It does seem that our brothers down under DO have the meld down the most consistently.  Just pull your trolley right over the greens, NO WORRIES!

It was great last year this time I was in sunny SoCal and TGC broadcasts from Australia started at 9:30 p.m. or so.  Yet another reason to live in the Golden State!

[Rich Goodale (Guest)]

I won't be watching the Aussie open due to other commitments (i.e. sleep), and I don't want to "rain" on the parade, but I must ask a question I have asked before, and have previously only had evasive replies to from the contingent down under:

"Does the "Sandbelt" style of bunkering, which seems to consist of a tilted oval, with hard packed edges, and a geometry that funnels virtually all errant shots into a flat bottomed, hard-packed middle, really constitute a 'hazard' in this day and age?  Is this what Tom Paul means by 'Ideal maintenance meld' in terms of bunkering?"

Just wondering........

[TEPaul]

That's a good point and good question Rich.

Most everyone thinks the "ideal maintenance meld" pertains only to degrees of firm and fast but in reality the "ideal maintenance meld" should pertain to any area of a golf  course touched by maintenance practices that go towards making any golf course play to the maximum potential of how it was specifically designed to be played!

The area of bunkering maintenance that's ideal for any particular style is certainly a prime and necessary one to be considered too in the "ideal maintenance meld".

Again, one of the best reasons for a term like the "ideal maintenance meld" is it does attempt to make the necessary and specific distinctions that work best on any particular type or style of course and recognizes that could be vastly different from type to type.

The term whose place it's trying to take--ie, "good condition" has never even attempted to be style or type specific or even make any distinction at all between types of designs etc.

"Good condition" on all the areas that maintenance effects was a term always assumed to be about the same at Pine Valley as it might have been at say Stone Harbor and clearly that can't be right.

So at least the necessary distinctions of particular  maintenance practices and the areas of them are starting to be made with a new term like maintenance meld!

[Mike Clayton]

Rich
The way the balls funnell into the centre of the bunkers is a characteristic of the sandbelt bunkers.
Do they constitute real hazards?
Absolutly.
Most are deep and hard up against the green edges which guarantees difficult shots.That added to the bone hard greens this week guarantees only the most perfect of shots can get close.
And at Victoria we have constantly argued there ought to be no consistancy to the bunkers. Some have very little sand ,some have a lot. It just depends on which part of the property they are on.
Players really need to be able to judge exactly what the club is going to do when it hits the sand.
Only the most skilled can sum up what is required and then execute.The bunkers with 'too much sand' or 'too little' are especially difficult to play from.

[Rich Goodale (Guest)]

Mike

I very much respect your opinion as an accomplished golfer, architect and writer and Australian , and appreciate your reply.

If and when I ever get to the Sandbelt and if ever at that time I through some sort of mischance happen to find a bunker I will be able to adequately reply.  Until then, may I ask you.......

As one who has played many if not most of the great courses in the world, under tournament condiitons, how do you think he bunkers such as the Sandbelt ones compare, strategically, to those with soft or inconsistent sand (e.g. Southern US) or those with geometries which are more likely to give you awkward lies (e.g. many UK links)?

If you're playing at the Vic, Good Luck!

[Mike Clayton]

Rich
The bunkers are the strategy of these courses. Almost everything revolves around where they are and how they guard the flags.
They are some of the most difficult in tournament golf but partly that is because the tours rarely go to the courses where you are likely to get the uneven lies you are talking about. Certainly in Europe that is true.
Everything now is so consistant and fair but not this week which is the nature of the unique bunkers down here.

[TEPaul]

"And at Victoria we have constantly argued there ought to be no consistency in the bunkers."
Mike Clayton

How about that! They also apparently are trying for the "ideal maintenance meld" with the playability of the bunkers too! There are some very fine things being done in the Sand Belt maintenance-wise!!

I thought the "ideal maintenance meld" was still somewhat theoretical but it appears to be happening in some very significant areas of maintenance in Australia!

[Matt_Cohn]

Rich,

I will back up what Mike said. Playing from a Sandbelt bunker to an American green (soft and a couple of meters removed from the bunker) wouldn't be so impossible.

And long bunker shots, if you have green to work with, aren't bad at all.

But when you short-side yourself...when you're playing out of that firm sand, the pin is only 12 feet from the edge of the bunker, and the green is inevitably hard and sloping away from you off the lip of the bunker...well, you're just f---ed!

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