I agree.  Hairy and bushy to the outside of the bunker is ok but if it is between the sand and the green then I have a problem...

I love bunkers that piss people off and have the ability to ruin their round.

I despise the clean lines of easy maintenance.

 

I love bunkers that piss people off and have the ability to ruin their round.

I despise the clean lines of easy maintenance.

 

Adam,

I can see you getting a kick out of me getting pissed off...and I'm glad that you agree that hairy bunkers are more expensive to maintain...I didn't think more expensive was more better in your book, even when we are really only talking about eye candy that makes a difference once in a thousand shots..

John,

I don't agree that hairy bunkers are always more expensive to maintain. In low round situations, I believe they can be much less expensive.

Joe

Really,  I'd always think sand, hair grass and regular grass would be more expensive than sand and regular grass....seems the economies of scale of one type of grass outweighs the savings of not maintaining the hair as often.

Joe,
I do agree that water and bermuda don't work for hairy bunkers.  The "look" of low maintenance in a high maitenance situation makes the grass too thick.  It works much better with fescues.  I know one course here in the SE that gets rave reviews on this site that has unplayable and unfair "hair".

John:

If you can get people to stop choosing perfect sand and grooming it so that everyone can get up and down, then I will agree 100% with your position.  As it is, though, the edges of the bunker are the only penalty left on most courses.

Adam,

I can see you getting a kick out of me getting pissed off...and I'm glad that you agree that hairy bunkers are more expensive to maintain...I didn't think more expensive was more better in your book, even when we are really only talking about eye candy that makes a difference once in a thousand shots..

John, First off, it's not YOU. It is more about the little nooks and crannes of any indiviual's mind, that takes them to a place that BLAMEs thier fate on an outside agency. Which leads to being pissed off. If golf should test anything, it should test the person's emotional quotient besides everything else.

On the surface, of what I think you are talkkng about, I can wholeheartdly agree that finding that clump of grass sucks. However, that doesnt mean it's a bad thing does it?  The randomness of the placement of these things (what you are talking about) adds to the unpredictability factor and the thrill of recovery. (not to mention the creativity required to do so)

Especially in match play, every shot makes somebody happy.

Over-coming deep bunkers is but learning one type of shot. Not exacly a cure all, but then again I have never been to GC.

I kind of like the hairy look. At the Minikahda club they have just completed a very extensive rennovation and one of the things they did was to restore the fringes on many of the bunkers as they were in photographs from the mid 1930's.

Not only do I think it is attractive, I also think it restores some of the danger to hazards that in many ways have become pretty tame over the years. Most of the bunkers here are relatively shallow a few with faces of maybe 3 feet or so. The fringe certainly means you can get in more trouble that just a simple sand shot if you flirt with them now.

Wayne

you are right about pissing people off. In fact there are more than a few members who quit over their dislike of the work being done.

Pauls-   I actually like the hair around the bunkers myself-  I just don't like it when there are so many bunkers that you have to hit absolutely perfect shots all the time to be successful.  I don't mind it if when say playing your second shot to a par 4  there are 1 or 2 greenside bunkers to be avoided-  if you hit in them you have made a major mistake and should have to take your punishment.  But you should still have a safe side or bail area where you can score or get up and down without much trouble. The real problem is again that the old guys without much of any control suffer major damage control and then don't have any strength or risk major injury trying to extricate themselves from said fringes of the bunkers.

Pat,

Tell me why then hairy bunkers always get phased out as the membership takes control of a course...I just don't think they are worth the expense from a playablility or aesthetic standpoint.  Just look at Pebble..and they are a resort..