Hazard Names

[Forrest Richardson]

Many of you here have been a tremendous help to Mark Fine and me as we complete our co-authored book on hazards. We're trying to fill in a list of names of famous (nearly famous) hazards. We realize that there are many out there which would be interesting, even if not famous in the strictest sense.

Give us names...your favorites, recollections, etc.

Thanks.

[Tom_Doak]

We gave names to quite a few of the bunkers on Pacific Dunes, and I understand the caddies have names for many others.

The most well-known of them is the "Shoe," the small bunker in the middle of the second fairway; the big bunker off the tee is known as the "Velodrome" because when we were trying to route the course, we found ATV tire tracks all around the inside of it.  My other favorite name is the "Josh Pit" in back of the sixteenth green, in honor of Josh Lesnik, who used to go in it every time when we were first playing that hole.

[PThomas]

the Spectacles at Carnoustie

[mike_malone]

 The MorrPaul bunker

[Jeff_Mingay]

Tom D.,

I've always liked the name of the small, deep bunker behind the 7th green at High Pointe - "Abandoned Well", isn't it?

I also like how you guys made a point to name some bunkers at Pacific Dunes. More bunkers need names!

[Chris_Clouser]

The Scabs and Three Sisters at Crystal Downs.

[Forrest Richardson]

Mike—Where is MorrPaul???

Please tell us from where these hazards come...and, also, let us not forget our friends the non-bunkers!

[Mike Vegis @ Kiawah]

Hell's Half Acre; the Devil's Asshole; the Church Pews; the White Faces of Merion; the Maiden; Sahara; Principal's Nose; Hell Bunker; the Beardies; Hill and Strath....

Check out the following article:

http://www.travelgolf.com/departments/editorials/bunkers-architecture.htm

[mike_malone]

 Forrest,
     
The MorrPaul bunker does not exist. It is proposed by Wayne Morrison and Tom Paul and I have the temerity to disagree.

[Paul_Turner]

The Widow bunker at Hayling.

[PThomas]

Eleanors Teeth at......the place where Hilton got the lucky bounce.......

[SPDB]

Paul T -

Apawamis #4

[Bill Gayne]

Hell's Half Acre; the Devil's Asshole; the Church Pews; the White Faces of Merion; the Maiden; Sahara; Principal's Nose; Hell Bunker; the Beardies; Hill and Strath....

Check out the following article:

http://www.travelgolf.com/departments/editorials/bunkers-architecture.htm

Mike, I clicked on the attached link and saw the link for the  cart girl of the week contest in the upper right corner. There's a couple of real hazards in that group.

[JohnV]

While these weren't official names, our old foursome (which included John Kirk) named a few bunkers at Pumpkin Ridge.

The bunker that was on the left off the tee on #7 was known as the "Bunker of Death" because none of us could make par if we hit it there.

The bunker that was on the left off the tee on #13 became known as the "Bunker of Serious Illness" since it was only slightly less difficult to make par from than the Bunker of Death.

The first bunker on the left off the tee on #14 was the "Bunker of the Thrown Driver" since one of our regulars tossed his driver the first two times he got in there and it became a ritual for all of us after that.  The best toss was one made by another player who hooked it slightly and had to fish his driver from the environmental wetlands from the bridge that crossed it.

[Bill Gayne]

Water hazards:
Rae's Creek
Suez Canal
Atlantic and Pacific Oceans

Building:
Old Course Hotel

Recollection:
At Golden Horseshoe's ninth hole I skulled a ball out of bunker hit an oak tree behind the green on the fly and the ball bounced back on to the green and into the hole. Simply unbelievable.

[mike_malone]

 Dupont C.C. Nemours course had a "snake pit" hazard. I think it meant you just did not bother to go down there to look for your ball.

[Jason Mandel]

At the old white manor, we used to call the bunkers fronting #7 "the tits"

they were 2 bunkers about 2 yards in front of the green with a bout a 5-10 yard gap between them.

[Dan Herrmann]

It's not a hazard, but at Riverside GC in Portland OR, there's a small rise on the 2nd hole we called the "Sissy Hill"....  You were a sissy if you couldn't get past the hill on your tee shot.

[Tom_Doak]

Jeff:

I forgot about the Abandoned Well!  It was named by the original golf professional, Doug Grove -- a deep pot bunker just behind the green, which you don't see from the fairway or for that matter until you are very close to it.

I played High Pointe on Wednesday and for the first time in many years I didn't go over and look down into it.

[SPDB]

How about the rare double - bunkers designed by the same architect on different courses named after the same man, because of the same predicament?

The Taft Bunker at Myopia and Kebo Valley

[Andy Levett]

The Coffin at Painswick (sorry no pic);
Billy at Portrush;

[Micah Woods]

The most interesting hazard I have seen is the crocodile pit about 20 meters short left of the green on the par 4 sixth hole at Tara Golf Course on Palawan Island in the Philippines. It comes complete with a shade tree, a moat, a rock wall, and barbed wire. I believe it plays as a lateral water hazard. No fancy name for this hazard; it is just the crocodile pit. Although multiple crocs once inhabited the pit, safety concerns have led to their removal.

[Bill_McBride]

The Coffin at Painswick!  Andy, you do have a keen eye!  The scariest thing about the Coffin is the logs lying in the bottom, placed there to discourage bicyclists from jumping down into this long, grassy pit.

At last year's GCA Ryder Cup there, I was playing in a group with Paul Turner, who well remembers my pulled second shot into the Coffin on #9........ not one, not two, but THREE innocent passersby yelled out, "He's in the Coffin!"  "He's in the Coffin!"   I'm not sure you would be allowed relief from the logs, could be a sticky wicket!

[ian]

Pandimonium is still my favourite (Musselburgh I think)

St. Andrew's Kruger and Mrs Kruger

THe Cardinal Bunker at Prestwick is the most unique

The Corsets at Royal St. Georges

The Crater at Royal Portrush

Big Bertha at Marine Drive is 25 feet deep.

[JohnV]

My favorite is Progressing which is between Scholars and the Road Bunker on #17 at TOC.  I can just imagine the smart a** wit that named that as another player fought his way up the hole.

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