Cross Bunkers - Who Builds (Built) the Best?

[SPDB]

I have recently taken a keen interest in cross bunkering, or fairway bunkering that impinges dramatically on the line of play. I have to admit that this interest has been  brought on somewhat by my rediscovered interest in Travis, so I am inclined to pick him as my fav. cross bunker artist. Even though I have read that he tried to move the fairway bunkers away from the center of the fairway, one cannot ignore the work he did at Hollywood, GCGC, and Ekwanok.

I have also admired somewhat the work of Raynor/CBM. Although it is not strategically in play, the bunkers the single centering bunker on Piping Rock's 14th is my single favorite fairway bunker - as Ran so eloquently described it, it is "elegant."

Flynn, no doubt, builds some of the best that I know of - Lehigh, etc.

Certainly, C+C have built some good bunkering at Sand Hills, Chechessee that mostly features at the corner of doglegs, etc.

But whose do you like the best?  

[Patrick_Mucci]

SPDB,

Almost two years ago I advocated the use of more cross bunkers to recreate interest in the game and to impede the distance trend.

Cross bunkers are some of my most favored features.

CBMacDonald did a pretty good job at them, as did Travis and some others.  

But there seems to be a modern day resistance to them that I'm at odds with.

I say, bring em back, in numbers.

[SPDB]

Bravo, Pat. Bravo. Man, I'm glad you are back. You never see modern archs. boldly dig bunkers into fairway the way they did decades ago. I don't know why that is.

The voting golfing public may see them as a nuisance, but i just cannot understand that. It may explain why members at Piping roundly rejected Doak's "Principal's Nose" on the 10th.

People want to make less decisions, it seems. A study of cross bunkering may reveal the seeds of the disappearance of strategy.

sean

[R.S._Barker]

You gents can surely remind me of whom I speak, but the well known architect that used to go out and watch play on his course, make notes of where the player(s) was hitting to, and then add bunkers in those spots would be a likely candidate..wouldn't he ??

Plus, in the same vein..who would you say is responsible for actually starting this trend of cross-bunkering ?

My guess would be one of the famed architects from the British Isles..since it seems logical to assume that they would have condsidered that as an excellent strategy to bump and run golf..which was so predominant in that day.

If I'm totally wrong..well, it won't be the first time..lol.

[Tommy_Naccarato]

A subject I'm hoping Mr. Brauer is reading into......

Sean,
Go check out Plainfield #16 and see what a cross bunker is supposed to look like, especially from every angle of play. (Even looking back from Green towards to the tee.)(Granted that there may be some other changes coming soon there that will only further the enjoyment of this paticular hazard.)

The back side of that sand hazard reminds me of a wave I once tried to ride during my surfing days. It was subtle and almost like an art form never seen before. Until I realized how strong the wave actually was, while it threw me to the ocean floor!

The most perfect of those hazards though is the HHA, @ Pine Valley #7. It truely is an art form all of its own.

[Tom MacWood (Guest)]

I don't know if he built the best, but he may have built the most, Devereux Emmet.

[Jeff Mingay]

Not sure if they qualify as "cross bunkers", but there are a tonne of well-placed bunkers at Banff in the direct line from tee to green that really make you "tack" your way to the hole. (Stanley Thompson!)

[Craig Disher]

Is the decline in use of cross bunkers possibly related to the need to maintain the course as quickly as possible? Just a thought.

In the UK, what about Colt and Fowler?

I don't think there is a more interesting challenge through the green than diagonal cross bunkering.

[SPDB]

Chris - that might be the case. There also might be a consideration for keeping the groups on the course moving. A while ago, Shivas, in reference to a pic of Hollywood, said he wouldn't want to be behind a 19 handicapper as he slashed his way around the sahara group of bunkers. Are some modern archs in kahoots with course owners to boost volumes at CCFADs?

[Paul Turner]

Colt built plenty of holes with single bunkers, on or close to the line of play.  Sunningdale New & Swinley Forest have plenty.

But Colt didn't build that many holes with a bunker or group of bunkers that block the entire (or vast majority of) the fairway.  And if he did, it was usually on holes with modest topograph. The 18th at Portrush, a few holes at Muirfield and a few at Beaconsfield, come to mind.

From my experience of Fowler's courses, his approach was similar.  Walton Heath has some centrally placed single bunkers but only one real cross bunker at the 18th.  Saunton East is similar.  But was he responsible for that massive Cape bunker at Westward Ho!?  

Overall I think a centrally placed single bunker is more interesting than a full cross bunker.  Or diagonal bunkers that really eat into the fairway but don't cut it entirely.

The greatest cross bunker of all has to be the Cardinal at Prestwick.  And Ganton has a great one at the 16th.

[SPDB]

Paul - I didn't mean to exclude the type of bunkers you like, in fact i tend to agree with you about strategically placed bunker that edge into lines of play, but don't necessarily totally bisect it.

Maybe the question would be better put: who builds the best fairway bunkering, including cross bunkering.

Tommy - I agree with you re: Plainfield. Look for people to discover (rediscover?) this gem, when it hosts the Senior OPen in '05.

[Patrick_Mucci]

SPDB,

Think about that picture of Hollywood.

Think about the play of the game in the era when Hollywood first opened.

There were no high tech, perimeter weighted clubs with low centers of gravity to get the ball up, turf conditions were probably such that lower trajectories were more the rule than the exception.

Yet, the course was played by all levels of golfers, perhaps every level acquired the methodology for playing the course according to their game or perished trying.

As I understand it, individual members removed most of the bunkering.  Was it in the name of fairness, speed of play, enjoyment who knows.

If the "old" Hollywood existed today, I maintain that it would be an Icon for golf, with everyone and their brother flocking to see and play it for themselves.

Pine Valley gets put in that category, but you hear many people say they love to play Pine Valley, but wouldn't want to do it on a steady diet.

Perhaps that's the secret to maintaining a course that tends to be punitive in nature, it has to have a removed, rather than a local membership.

[Richard_Goodale]

I think that the cross bunkering at Bandon is one of its best features, so I'd give David Kidd a nod here in the "still alive" category.

[SPDB]

Pat - I nearly cried when I saw a classic picture of Hollywood. I think Rees has done a respectable job, but the look of that old picture really excites me. That sahara collection of bunkers that fits together like a jigsaw puzzle is absolutely mesmerizing.
There is not a single architect out there today that would build a bunker complex like that one. And that is depressing.

[Patrick_Mucci]

SPDB,

I have a full size and several smaller versions of that picture,
I love it.

A one shot restoration would be impossible as it probably took 50 plus years to remove many of those spectacular bunkers, but, by initiating the process in reverse, on a gradual basis, a club just might restore a fair share of "ARCHITECTURE LOST", over a period of time.

Hollywood is currently embarking on a significant clubhouse project, but I'm hoping that they don't take their eye off of the recent improvements to the golf course and continue with a mild, gradual restoration.

I have written to some interested parties, enclosed the old photos and encouraged them to continue to restore their fabulous golf course on a gradual, non-controversial schedule.

Keep your fingers crossed !

[Paul Turner]

Are there examples other than Pine Valley that have loads of cross bunkers (or hazards) AND relatively severe, undulating terrain?

[Lou Duran]

Roger Rulewich/RTJ Sr. did some interesting cross-bunkering at several RTJ Trail courses in AL.  From the back tees these are positioned 250-275 out+, sometimes two or three of them diagonally (en echelon).   Some are large with depth.  I didn't paticularly care for them because I kept finding them, while my son just blew it over them.   Depending on how the cross bunkers are placed, they may give too much advantage to the long, high trajectory player.  

[APBernstein]

I increasingly find myselg referencing photographs to help prove my "point", or at least illustrate what I am trying to say.

And since I have already sung the praises of Chechessee Creek once tonight, there seems to be no need to stop there.

...the 8th...

[Brian Phillips]

I think that both courses at Sunningdale old and new have good cross bunkers.  My favourite are probably the ones at Lytham.  However they do not really punish the top player anymore.  

But the design of a golf course is not really based on 2% of the players is it?

Andrew,

I don't know if you agree with me but your picture to mean shows penal bunkering not really cross bunkering.  The cross bunkering that I have seen gives the player a choice to take the long way around the bunkers or to go over the bunkers.  In your picture it does really seem to giev that opportunity.

The opening between the two bunkers is very small that even a chip through would be difficult for the high handicap player.

Is the foregreen watered a lot as it looks very lush, green grass.  Can you play a bump and run over the nearest bunker?

I do not like that hole at all.

But that is the beauty of GCA it is subjective...

Cheers Brian

[APBernstein]

Brian:

Chechessee is maintained to play firm and fast and it did when I played there last summer.  It was actually very fast and I couldn't have asked for better conditions.

The 8th in my book is a very good hole.  The tee shot needs to be struck well to be able to give the player a reasonable shot at the green.  A mid-to-long iron can just carry the bunker and then chase on the green and back to the pin.  A poorly struck drive will force the player to lay back of the bunker and then pitch to the green.

Since the bunkers lay 40 yards short of the green, the less bold shot is to layup.