[Ed_Baker]

I had the pleasure of playing yesterday with another GCA contributor and during the round we had a discussion about the cut lines of the rough at my home course and actually several other Golden age clubs.

We have discussed this on here before but I think it's worth re-visiting to see what the treehouse's experience has been.

Our opinion is that the entrance to bunkers should be closely mown (fairway height). This practice of having rough universally employed around every bunker on the golf course drives me nuts. Why would you call it a fairway bunker if it's actually surrounded by rough? We have some marvelous cross bunkers 20 to 30 yards short of some greens that don't come in to play nearly as often as they should because the ball never rolls to them, it stops in the damn rough.

We did a pretty good job on the restoration at my club and yet, several seasons removed from the completion of the actual physical construction elements of the project, we are cutting the damn grass in a manner that is in direct conflict with the maintenence guidlines in the master plan. In my opinion, I believe that this issue is part of maintenence meld and goes hand in hand with fast and firm. Why the hell would you go to all the trouble to prepare a course fast and firm and then negate some of it's best design features by not allowing a slightly wayward shot to ROLL in to a strategically placed bunker that the architect put there for precisely that purpose?
Sure some balls end up in these hazards from aireal shots, but maybe twice as many would end up in them with firm fairways if the entrances were maintained as fairway.

What have you found in your golf travels, is this typical? Do you agree or disagree that bunker entrances should be closely mown?

[Kenny Lee Puckett]

Agreed.

My club has the same misguided thought process as well, especially with green-fronted bunkers.

Trying hard not to let it drive me insane.

JWK

[Bill_McBride]

We just had this discussion at my club again yesterday.  I took the super and our greens committee chair into the office, logged onto GCA and showed them a few profile photos of famous courses and how the grass in front of fairway bunkers should be cut at fairway length, not rough length.  I think they agreed to start cutting ours that way.  I should have had them sign something!

I think a lot of this comes from a desire to narrow fairways and perhaps save a bit of budget dollars by doing so.  Can the supers in the crowd tell me if this is actually true?  If every fairway is 30' narrower than originally designed, how much would you save on maintenance costs for a 6500 yd course.  Actually, the entire fairway doesn't have to be widened, just that part leading into the bunkers.  This would also help avoid the dreaded "bowling alley" look as the fairways would meander more.

Appreciate any input.

[Tom_Doak]

Bill:

The savings in having less fairway are as much about chemical applications as about mowing.  They are also directly related to the overall golf course budget, and to the grass species in a given region.

A wild guess at your question for a course in the Northeast:  making every fairway 30 feet narrower would save 1/4 of the actual area mowed [and chemical budget for fairways], maybe 1/5 of the time and labor for mowing.  That would save perhaps $50,000 at a club with a $1 million maintenance budget.

This is probably too high, but I'm dying to hear what real superintendents say.

[A_Clay_Man]

Yes the experience is pervasive. However, as it would appear with all things GCA, any uniform presentation maybe just as bad or ill conceived.

Also, there is a significant difference in 1-1.5 inch rough, fronting these bunkers, and a 3-4 inch cut. If the course is truely F&F the 1-1.5 inch cut would have little impact on a balls forward momentum, adding to the excitment that unpredictable outcomes provide. Opposed, to the 3-4 in cut that's irredescient green from over-watering and the almost assured fact that the ball stopped short, save for the aerial directly in the bunker.

Someday I hope to read the definitive maintenance meld chapter on this subject. Somehow, I suspect that a random use of both styles, would be more in-keeping with the nature of the sport. But I could be biased towards the unpredicatble, cause I know I am biased against making the sport easier in any fashion, for any level of player.

[Don_Mahaffey]

Honestly, I believe it's less about savings and more about style or education. If the rough and fwys are different grasses, such as bent fwys and blue/fescue roughs, then it is a lot more then just changing the mowing pattern. But, if the grasses are the same then its not that big of a deal to change the cut around the bunkers, provided the design and construction of the bunkers had short grass approaches in mind. However, every course is different and it really needs to be examined on a case by case basis.

[Bill_McBride]

Adam, there's nothing worse than seeing a ball running directly into a bunker that gets hung up in the rough.

Don, here in Pensacola we're all common Bermuda rough and fairways, so it would just be a matter of adjusting cut.  

[Don_Mahaffey]

Bill,
Yup, Bermuda turf makes it pretty simple to chnage mowing lines. And, there's no real argument for any kind of savings from chem or fert applications, in most cases. No snow mold or dollar spot issues on bermuda turf in the south.

We try and say it's up to the super or the greens chair to change the bunker approaches, but here in the US it's a little out there because no one else is doing it. What we need is the USGA to set the example as they seem to be the course set-up most often followed by the masses. If the Open and Am courses have long rough around bunkers then why shouldn't our course is the thinking. Whether we like it or not TV golf has a great influence on what is perceived as the way to do it by both the masses and the people who manage our courses. I doubt that the sand belt courses down under or the links courses in the UK would change the way they set up their courses based on TV golf, but here in the US it just seems our culture to be more influenced by what we see the big boys doing.

[Bill_McBride]

Don, unfortunately the poster child for what you are talking about -- the Open or other major tournament setting the example -- is the 18th hole at Bethpage Black.  I was horrified    to see those beautiful fairway bunkers 10 yards off in the rough.  That hole would have been ever so much more deadly looking with fairway grass running into those bunkers.  It just looked like garbage to me... IMHO.  

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