While Sarazen invented the sand wedge in 1931 and debuted it at the 1932 Open at Prince's Golf Course where he shot a then record 283, the sand wedge was around for nearly 70 years prior to the recent bunker reworking at Merion. Chip, are you saying that the shot values that Wilson intended were compromised all those years before the bunkers were made steep and deep?
Hugh Wilson died in Jan 1925. He and Flynn redesigned and added many of the bunkers between 1912 and 1925, prior to the invention of the sand wedge. Flynn continued to rework the bunkering, routing, and greens over the years until his death in 1945 along with the construction help of Joe Valentine. Much of this time was during the era of the sand wedge. Bobby Jone's score of 73 on the East in qualifying for the 1930 US Amateur (prior to the advent of the sand wedge) was comparable to the scoring of the leading contenders in the 1934 US Open. It seems to me that the playability of the bunkers was not an issue for the top players or the field in general despite the widespread use of the sand wedge in comparing the scoring in the 1930 Amateur and the 1934 Open.
In some cases, a shallow bunker especially at the rear of the green where the green slopes away back to front (as they used to be on 1 and 5 on the East and 7 on the West for some examples) is a far more difficult shot than out of a deep bunker, at least with the ball on the base of the bunker or on an upslope. A downslope at the rear of such a steep and deep bunker is much harder and often unplayable towards the pin.
Chip writes, "The bunkers weren't that deep in 1931 but they PLAYED that deep before the Sand Wedge was invented.
I do not believe that this is correct and Hugh Wilson's writings indicate this.
"IMO, the key to the deeper bunkers is the restoration of the SHOT VALUES that Hugh Wilson (et al) originally intended."
I disagree that Hugh Wilson intended bunkers to be so deep that they would be penal to all players. Here is what Hugh Wilson wrote about his philosophy on bunkers in 1916, before the invention of the sand wedge.
"The question of bunkers is a big one and we believe the very best school for study is along the seacoast among the dunes. Here one may study the different formations and obtain many ideas for bunkers. We have tried to make them natural and fit them into the landscape. The criticism has been made that they are too easy [even prior to the invention of the sand wedge], that is the banks are too sloping and that a man may at times play a mid-iron shot out of the bunker, where he should be forced to use a niblick. This opens a pretty big subject and we appreciate that the tendency is to make bunkers more and more difficult. In the bunkers abroad on the seaside courses, the majority of them were formed by nature and the slopes are easy; the only exception being, where on account of the shifting sand, they have been forced to put in railroad ties or some similar substance to keep the same from blowing. This has made a perfectly straight wall but it is not done with the intention of making it more difficult to get out, but merely to retain the bunker as it exists. If we made the banks of every bunker so steep that the very best player is forced to always use a niblick and the only hope he has is to be able to get his ball back on the fairway again, why should we not make a rule, as we have at present with water hazards, where a man may, if he so desires, drop back with the loss of one stroke. I thorouhgly believe that for the good of Golf, that we should not make our bunkers so difficult, that there is no choice left in playing out but that the best and the worst must use a niblick."
I don't see how scoring differentials at Merion before and after the development of the sand wedge indicate that playability was dramatically compromised as evidenced by significantly lower scoring which might have necessitated a change in bunker depth and steepness so many years later. Nor would it appear from the writings of Hugh Wilson that he would have made the bunkers deeper and steeper in order to retain shot values prior to the sand wedge. I think the shot values out of the bunkers at Merion prior to the recent reworking of the bunkers were not so penal as they are today and they certainly were easier to get in and out of.
Although I think the bunker work should not be explained away as something that Wilson would neccesarily approve of nor as a return to shot values, I really do like the look of the bunkers today and accept the challenges of the steep and deep bunkering much more so than I ever imagined I would upon completion the work. The effective leadership of green chairman Wilson Greenwood working along with the highly respected superintendent, Matt Shaffer, and his talented crew are working in conjunction with Tosh Belsinger for the continued betterment of the bunkers and fairway lines. Let's not forget that they hit a home run with the fairway line phase of the work especially on 5, 6, and 14. Are the bunkers perfect as is? No, but what is? What is encouraging is that they are definitely on the right track and the course is looking great and the play is definitely a challenge to the best golfers of today as it was in the past--there is continuity in this regard.