Other than Royal Ashdown Forest, how many bunkerless courses are out there?

Thanks,

tom

Sean, shame, one of your favourites, Painswick.

Culver Military Academy and Pocono Manor-East, thanks to TD's CG Gazetteer.

Reid Park South- Springfield, Ohio. I believe it is the South, but it might be the North Course. One of them doesn't have any bunkers.

Raptor in Naples ala Ray Floyd

Sean, shame, one of your favourites, Painswick.

Two errors here.

1.  I don't know that Painswick is one of Sean's favourites.

2.  There is a bunker at Painswick.  Can you guess where?  It is the ultimate in quirk for what is essentially a bunkerless course to have a bunker here!

James B

Oh and for a great bunkerless course - Waikerie - a small country town about 2 hours drive from Adelaide.  A fine set of greens and a course set amongst local dunes near the River Murray, supported by a population of about 4000!  A great shoestring budget course.

http://www.bramshaw.co.uk/index.lasso?pg=e22f527e4264112f&cl=1&catid=4cc9422eabb5b397&mp=6cc4072f61aef2e4&-session=ldcms:8424A5C3A72E743726384812EF2A7F0E&-session=ldcms:ED385C736182058AFC29634B787AF4DC

Was driving through the beautiful New Forrest yesterday and thinking “golf country”.

I then saw two holes (9&10) of what turns out to be Bramshaw Golf course.  It’s an excellent website and it would appear a bunkerless course. (further checking reveals they spoilt this on the 12th hole ). I think the course would be worth investigating but in summer as the poor soil showed thin grass and surface water.

From the site

“The original course, now known as the Forest, was originally built by a local resident/landowner called Philip de Crespigny, for the entertainment of his weekend guests in about 1865. It was built partly in his large garden at Roundhill and partly on Brook Common. There were no other golf courses in Hampshire at that time and no records can be found to show that he had permission to build his!
The many natural features of the New Forest, particularly the rise and fall of the land and the stream that runs through the far side of the course ("Kings Garn Gutter"), made it easy to create golf holes of great interest and ones that required the skills of a seasoned links golfer to master. Without any form of mechanical assistance, the major part of the work was either done by hand or with the assistance of horses from local farms.  
Together with another local landowner, John Jeffries, they formed Bramshaw Golf Club and Bramshaw Cricket Club (which is alongside the 18th fairway) in 1880, a fact documented in the R&A Handbook. There were fourteen entrants in its first ever Monthly Medal, which was won by Philip de Crespigny (playing off scratch) with a total of 174 for 36 holes. By the third competition they reduced it to just 18 holes! After a period in the 1890's when the club had just 9 holes, it formed a partnership with a new local club at Lyndhurst (who also had 9 holes). The combined club, calling themselves New Forest Golf Club, had the unique feature of the front and back nine holes being over 5 miles apart!
The course at Brook Common was extended to 18 holes in the first decade of the 20th Century and the partnership was dissolved in 1913. It was not until 1945 that the club obtained a formal Forestry Commission permit to play golf there.”

Anyone know more?

This subject reminds me a very old GCA thread (2001 !) in which the discussion was on the neccessity of bunkers on a course. A very interesting discussion :

http://www.golfclubatlas.com/board/ubbhtml/Forum1/HTML/005418.html

Hope not to play the rally killer   but I think the two threads are well connected.

James B
thanks for posting that picture. Just an aside: sometimes flatish greens get criticized, but I think they look very pretty, and I don't find them particularly easy to putt on. Have you played Painswick? A flat green on a par 3 with no bunkers sounds like a pretty easy hole. Is it?
Peter

  Isn't one of the courses on the RTJ Trail completely void of bunkers? My home club in Alexandria, MN has no fairway bunkers  

James B
thanks for posting that picture. Just an aside: sometimes flatish greens get criticized, but I think they look very pretty, and I don't find them particularly easy to putt on. Have you played Painswick? A flat green on a par 3 with no bunkers sounds like a pretty easy hole. Is it?
Peter

Peter- Painswick's greens are far from flat, other than that 18th hole which is fairly new. BTW the old 18th at Painswick did have at least one bunker around it, I think two. A few like the 5th, 7th, 10th, have quite a bit of tilt. Painswick has about half a dozen greens that slope away from you as well, which makes it tough.
Minchinhampton (old) has no sand bunkers as far as I recall, there must be a lot of small 9 holers throughout the UK without sand, though the ones already mentioned are the significant courses that are worth a further look.

Peter Pallotta

#18 at Painswick is NOT an indication of the course character.  It is flat, relatively simple but does fall under the guise of clubhouse onlookers from the balcony above.

One could comment on #18 at Painswick, but that hole is not what Painswick is about.

James B

Mark,

I am smiling and laughing and crying. Bunker additions being compared to artificial tunnels to make the consumer happy.

That indeed is an unusual story. It also hammers home the point that the consumer gets what he wants and if bunkers it is, then bunkers he will get.