[Wayne_Freedman]

This seems to be a trend that I am seeing on every new or rebuilt golf course out west.

Stonebrae
Peacock Gap
Marin Country Club
And that's in just two weeks.

Long hair in front, in back, long hair around tree stumps, grabbing balls, rendering already difficult shots into unplayable ones.

Don't get me wrong. I like hair in proper places, but this is hair running wild. Haven't seen so much intentional and overflowing  hair  since Berkeley in the 60's.

I've been playing  golf for quite a while, and have seen hairy bunkers before, but never so many of them. Is this an affectation? Did someone write a memo? What is the influence?

[David_Tepper]

Wayne -

Have you seen many of the bunkers at the Metropolitan Golf Links? I have seen one or two players almost lose a ball in the "hair" surrounding the bunkers. Instead of rolling into the bunker, balls can get hung up on the side slopes of the bunkers, leaving one with some VERY difficult sidehill lies & stances.

DT

[cary lichtenstein]

I am in love with hairy bunkers, the hairier the better

[Mike_Young]

Wayne,
Right now is just a fad.  I have always thought that so many of the older courses that have pictures of "hairy bunkers" were not necessarily that way by choice but because there as no easy way to maintain the edge and as machinery cam along many of the bunkers evolved.  I remember raking bunkers for the Masters tourneys during the 80's.  As they were beginning to clean up the edges we were going back and hand held scissors to clip the edges....and just mid 70's the edges were much hairier.
Now I am not talking about windswept dunes etc

[Jed Peters]

We used to have this at my club, but an active trimming/thinning program by the super has them looking more and more sparse.

He's also mowing down the front areas (where balls feed into) so that the sand comes into play more.

I really like the approach.

[Jim_Coleman]

    I like mine waxed.

[Mike_Young]

    I like mine waxed.

Jim,
Waxed is fine..I do know that in the south we play from a much deeper bunker depth than you guys.....

[Jim_Coleman]

Mike:
   So I hear.  But aren't crabs a problem?

[Dan Herrmann]

Wayne,
At our SE Pennsylvania course, the goal is to let the summer heat and (usually) drier weather thin out the fescues and native grasses around the bunkers, giving them a golden, whispy look. 

[Mike_Young]

Mike:
   So I hear.  But aren't crabs a problem?

Jim,
Again we go back to maintenance issues.....it all depends on maintenance.   

[Pat Brockwell]

"Hairy" bunkers offset the cost of rising fuel prices.  Part of the trick is less fert, saves more $, makes more playable.

[Jim_Coleman]

Mike:
   Although it contradicts everything this website preaches, over-irrigation may be the only answer.  Firm and fast just doesn't cut it.

[Wayne_Freedman]

All quite interesting.
Now...remember that song TINY BUBBLES???

HAIRY BUNKERS....

[Matt_Cohn]

Wayne -

Have you seen many of the bunkers at the Metropolitan Golf Links? I have seen one or two players almost lose a ball in the "hair" surrounding the bunkers. Instead of rolling into the bunker, balls can get hung up on the side slopes of the bunkers, leaving one with some VERY difficult sidehill lies & stances.

DT

I really like this. Not only does it look cool, but it makes you think about the bunkers - albeit for a weird, reason, but they suddenly become relevant and scary again.

[Matt Varney]

I have seen that mowing the front areas so that balls can roll into the bunkers while allowing the rear outer edges of  the bunkers to look raw and hairy.  For the good of the game andfor speed of play tall grass surrounding bunkers is just too penal to the average player. 

They look cool but, you don't want your ball in the tall grass.  I think it is totally fair to make the recovery shot very tough if your ball lands in the hairy grass outside the bunkers.  The player has missed the shot so poorly they are going to have to hit a great shot to recover.

[John Sheehan]

There is/was some pretty interesting discussion in this thread on the same topic:

http://golfclubatlas.com/forum/index.php/topic,34661.0.html

Though I must admit, there is no mention of crabs, waxing or "Tiny Bubbles."    But there is still time...

[Tags:]

Tags:

[Tags:]

Tags:

Call to undefined function theme_linktree()