[John Shimp]

For the Ross experts, is it true or false that Ross originals rarely included sand bunkers that were behind greens?  

Did other golden age architects have preferences for or against bunkering behind greens?

Charlotte Country Club is undergoing an extensive Ron Prichard led redo.  The work so far looks really interesting but one thing I have noticed is the placement of several new bunkers behind segments of the new greens.  Ron Prichard is no doubt a Ross expert and is using old aerials for much of his inspiration.  I, though, havent been able to  pick up on many behind the green sand bunkers.

Another Charlotte Ross course, Carolina Golf Club also has some behind the green bunkers, but they are clearly added well post-Ross and look terrible for the most part. Kris Spence plans to abolish most/all of these in his master plan at Carolina.  

[Ed_Baker]

John,

This is a site specific issue. Many times without the benefit of the original field drawings Ross' behind the green bunkers turn out to be " green chairman from 19(pick a year)" bunkers. I have seen a ton of aireals from the 1930's on Ross courses where these types of bunkers are evident and in some cases during the research process their origin reveals itself through club archives.

During the restoration at my home course, we removed 5 of these types of bunkers that were proven to be not original and we restored one that had virtually become over grown and quite frankly ignored for a long time but was marked quite clearly on Ross' original field drawings, the amazing part is that the damn thing is in play all the time now where before the ball just disappeared down the cliff and gone.

Ron Prichard would certainly be the man to defer to on weather the bunker is authetic or not.

[redanman]

Plainfield CC hole #3 has some beautiful, sneaky bunkers behind the green and a severely sloping green towards the water tight to the front.

Donald Ross at his most unforgiving?

[Jeff_Mingay]

John,

My home course - Essex G&CC in Windsor, Ontario - featured tiny pot-like bunkers behind the 4th (missing today), 5th, 7th, 11th (missing), 13th and 16th greens.

Essex opened for play in 1929.

Like most master architects (past and present), I don't think Donald Ross strictly abided by any set of rules.

[J_McKenzie]

The 1938-1939 Ross sketches we are working off of at Brunswick CC show 4 greens with sand behind them.  Three are very small bunkers, one which is identified as simply a sand splash, and the fourth is a true bunker and labeled as such in the drawing.

Ross also includes the following in his written General Notes:

"Mounds surrounding greens to be graded so that they blend smoothly into the putting surface.  If necessary for effect any mounds may have sand splashes erected on them."

John  

[Tyler Kearns]

John,

While I knew of a few of these Ross bunkers at Elmhurst, Ron Prichard's master plan for the course revealed some more. The information was gathered from old aerial photographs.

TK

[michael j fay]

There is no general rule. I have seen rear bunkers on many Ross hole drawings. Most of the time the rear bunker was to one side or another. I have seen quite a number of rear bunkers that have been installed behind Ross greens by various people trying to create a backstop, if you will, for retaining the ball from a much worse fate.

Frankly, my theory is that Mr. Ross used the area beyond the green as a major part of his approach strategy. On most of his drawings the greens were squarish with shoulders, (left right or both) that created hole positions very close to the end of the fillpad. Shots that exceeded the back of the green were into the great unknown. Given Ross's background as a superintendent, I am confident that he was not recommending chipping areas or manicuring beyond the very basic in these areas. My feeling is that if you challenged the back positions in the era when these courses were created and exceeded the green you found yourself with a lofted club in hand and a thought as to how you could make bogey. Often times you would find your ball in high grass some 10-15 feet below a green that was running downhill away from you.
Certainly this shot is much easier with today's lob wedges but still creates many bogies where in the days of yore the double bogey was often the result.

Manicuring these areas takes away from the original strategy and although the shot from beyond the green is still quite difficult there is some chance of getting it up and down from a short grass lie.

I feel this a "dumbing down" of the overall experience, especially on the shorter fours and threes.
 

[John Shimp]

Both Carolina and Charlotte have many of the large beyond the green dropoffs into deep grass that led to a pitch back to a green running away that Michael Fay speaks of as well as, unfortunately, the post-Ross created "backstops" to avoid a worse fate.  

[Bradley Anderson]

The recovery shot from a behind-the-green bunker is generally hit to a putting surface that is sloping away from the player. It really is one of the toughest shots in golf. I wonder why it isn't used more often? It is such potent defense.

[michael j fay]

Although the bunker shot from behind a sloping away green is difficult it pales by comparison to the shot out of knee high briars to a green going away.

[Tags:]

Tags:

[Tags:]

Tags:

Call to undefined function theme_linktree()