"Theme" Bunkers

[Bill_McBride]

There was a bit on NPR radio this morning about the redesign of Highland Golf Club in St. Paul, MN, where Charles Schulz apparently played a lot of golf.  According to the story, the designer incorporated a tribute to Schulz with a temporary bunker in the shape of Snoopy!  The members like it so much it's still there.  What other "theme" bunkers can you all think of?  I'll start it off with the "Texas" bunker on the 2nd hole at Mill Creek in Salado, TX.  It's extremely visible right in front of the green.

[Allan Long]

Disney World has its Mickey ears bunker; The University Club outside Columbia, SC has a bunker shaped like a claw for the University's mascot; and there is a course in Texas (name escapes me) that has a green shaped like Texas and a bunker above it shaped like Oklahoma.

[Peter_Herreid]

Dungeness Golf and CC in Sequim, WA has a "crab"-shaped bunker complex, and Bear Creek CC in Woodinville, WA has a bunker complex in the pattern of a large bear paw--to name two from this area.

The "Dick Tracy" bunker at Cantigny in Wheaton, IL has been discussed here before.

[Dan Kelly]

Re: the Snoopy bunker (actually three bunkers).

Check out the story in "Minnesota's First Newspaper": http://www.twincities.com/mld/twincities/news/local/5079700.htm

This Snoopy bunker complex becomes Minnesota's second (so far as I know) "theme" bunker complex -- after Jeff Brauer's much-photographed giant's-footprint at Giants Ridge.

Jeff -- Maybe now, with the competition from Snoopy, the GR folks will let you go ahead with your original plan: a series of giant's-footprint bunker complexes, one hole after the next, at a giant's-stride distance apart.

[Michael Dugger]

Las Vegas: Legacy Golf Club
Deck of cards tees? (does this count?)
http://www.vegas.com/golf/courseguide/legacy.html

New Fazio resort in Barbados: Sandy Lane
Bunker in the shape of a monkey....I think the course is called green monkey
NO PICTURE, saw it is golf digest.  last page of the magazine, I think.

All the crap at Stone Harbor
THANK GOODNESS NO PICTURE

Pacific Dunes:
The "boot" bunker on #2 (does this count?)

Jasper Park:
Stanley Thompson's original Rose Bunker...or was it Cleopatra or something like that.  I think the hole has been destroyed.

Pine Valley:
The devil's A-hole. Is this really what it looks like?

[Craig Van Egmond]

How about this bunker at Dungeness golf course in Sequim, Washington.

http://www.dungenessgolf.com/hole3.html

[Bill_McBride]

Craig, that crab bunker is a bit over the top, but the package there with lodging and affordable golf looks wonderful.  I've been to the Olympic Peninsula and up into the San Juans, and it is great laid back country.  How's the golf course?

[cary lichtenstein]

Cantingy in Chicago has a "Dick Tracy Bunker"

[John_Conley]

Reading the posts, it makes me wonder if anyone reads the comments already on the thread when they write.

[Dan Kelly]

Reading the posts, it makes me wonder if anyone reads the comments already on the thread when they write.

[Dan Kelly]

Isn't there a crab-shaped bunker someplace out West?

Like in Washington, maybe?

[Dan Kelly]

Boy, is my face red!

How could I have forgotten to mention the Snoopy bunkers at the Highland golf course in St. Paul?

[jas]

Dungennes GC in Sequim Washington, near Port Angeles on the Olympic Peninsula has a crab shaped bunker - hence its Namesake.  
Of course Desmond Muirhead did several theme bunkers in the shapes of fish, mermaids, jaws,Vikings etc.  Then Jim Colbert incorporated hat shaped bunkers in tribute to his tub hat styling when building Colbert Hills for Kansas State University.
There is even an island green with an apple shaped bunker somewhere.

[Dan Kelly]

Reading the posts, it makes me wonder if anyone reads the comments already on the thread when they write.

As for Colbert Hills: That was a Keffrey Bauer design, wasn't it?

[Peter_Herreid]

We'll see if anyone reads this one before responding..

That apple island green is at Apple Tree Golf Course in Yakima, WA, where the green is the apple, the bunker is a leaf, and the stem is the walkway to the green...

It may have been a fable, but I thought I remembered someone telling me that the Bayonet Course at Fort Ord has/had a theme bunker on the 18th...

Peter

[Rick Shefchik]

Speaking of Keffrey Bauer, has it been noted here yet that the magazine that misidentified him "corrected" their mistake in the next issue by calling him Jeffrey Bauer?

And has it been noted that the Highland Park municipal golf course in St. Paul has a bunker shaped like Snoopy?

[Mike Benham]

John_Conley, Shivas, Dan Kelly - Please report to the Department of Redundancy Department ...  

[Slag Bandoon]

The "Apple" green is in Washington as well.  There's also the University of Washington course (can't remember the official name) with Husky footprint bunkers. There's also a crab bunker, oops, tired joke.

 Them mouthbreathin' blas-themers sure are cute with their idears.  
"Gee, let's name an airplane manufacturing company Boeing! That'll garner trust."

[Allan Long]

Dan, how could you forget that marvelous bunker at Redundant
Hills? Then there was that one......

[Dan Kelly]

Speaking of Keffrey Bauer, has it been noted here yet that the magazine that misidentified him "corrected" their mistake in the next issue by calling him Jeffrey Bauer?

Oh, God, that's choice! "Correcting" it to Jeffrey Bauer should be even more embarrassing than the initial "Keffrey Bauer"!

I'm sure glad I'm not on the staff at Golf Digress.

Oops. Sorry. I meant Goof Digest.

[corey miller]

Rees Jones built a "theme" bunker when he worked at sleepy hollow in the early 90's.  He put a mickey mouse looking bunker complex in front of the green on the short 16th overlooking the hudson.  This was soon covered up by the membership but the ugly scar still remains.  I think it must have been a test to see if the membership would actually change something the "open doctor" suggested in his sensitive restoration of the bunkers.

[Craig Van Egmond]

So sorry about the redundant post about dungeness, but at least I added a picture to look at.    

Bill McBride,

      Dungeness is a fun course, a fine example of good affordable golf. The big claim to fame, other than the bunker is that they are supposedly in the rain shadow and get half the annual rainfall of Seattle, so when its raining in Seattle its probably dry there. I went there 3 times and it was always raining.  

[Bill_McBride]

Craig:  "I went there 3 times and it was always raining."  Well, we are talking about the Pacific NW here, right?    I lived in Seattle for most of 1968 and it really never did stop raining.  "Summer" was the one nice weekend in August.  But it does keep those courses lush and green -- F & F is not an option!

[Jeff_Brauer]

Dan,

The Giant's Ridge footprint is a one of a kind.  I have come to the conclusion the joke is only funny once.

If you like theme bunkers, you'll love my Wilderness at Fortune Bay.  As it turns out, the Chippewa tribe as 18 clans, each represented by a protector animal, and an tribal council member came out one day, mentioning his clan was the Bear.  We had a large fairway bunker, that with only a little rehaping could be made a bear, and we did.  I tried for Mama, Papa, and a few baby bears, but that was overkill.

Of course, clans represented by Wolf, Eagle, Pine (that's easy, they're all over the place) turtle, Eagle, and various fish wanted equal treatment.  All holes will have clan names and histories, and there are various bunkers and mounds shaped to represent them.

BTW, at Colbert Hills, the hat bunker never materializes on 13.  We just couldn't make it look right.  Look carefully, though, and the bunkers have the courses namesake initials up by the green.

We tried football themed bunkers at Cowboys, and they didn't work either.

I would apologize for the footprint, or others, but they come into strategically into play, and a far from being the "signature gimmick/feature, and are not the highlight of the courses.

[Daryl "Turboe" Boe]

There is the "S C" bunkers on Kings North at Myrtle Beach National in SC.

In my neck of the woods Clemson University's Walker Course (although it has nothing to do with walking I still like the connotation of that course name) has a green complex and bunkers built into the hillside behind that look like the Clemson Paw Logo.

There is also a bunker shaped like a pig on the downhill par 3 (10th hole I believe) at Elk Ridge in Atlanta, MI.  I was told the owner started Honey Baked Ham or somthing like that.