America's Fiercest Bunker

[jkinney]

Bill - You are correct. CBM modeled National's 7th after the Road Hole. The massive complex of fairway bunkers and deep fescue on the right of the landing area for the drive was his shed guarding the dogleg on the Road Hole, and the massive back greenside bunker was his road & stone fence. The pot bunker was his Road Hole bunker.

[Bill_McBride]

Bill - You are correct. CBM modeled National's 7th after the Road Hole. The massive complex of fairway bunkers and deep fescue on the right of the landing area for the drive was his shed guarding the dogleg on the Road Hole, and the massive back greenside bunker was his road & stone fence. The pot bunker was his Road Hole bunker.

Thanks, I was wondering about the "DA" reference.  I really wouldn't know, as that was one of the few bunkers I avoided that day!  (I did manage to get down in the rear "Road" bunker; that's no treat!).

[Eric Smith]

The 4th at Sand Hills?

Fierce, in that the bunker kicked me in the shins and stole my lunch money, I'll go with 18 at Sand Hills.

The huge cavernous one left before the green.

After a couple of attempts to extract myself from the depths of despair, I ended up having to leave my ball half way up the slope of this sand mountain and walk in, completely out of breath and my tail between my legs.  Much like my day at The Dunes in Brooksville. Bill McBride, you remember that one!

[Mike Hendren]

I'll second the Road Hole bunker at National Golf Links of America.  I have a very steep swing and tend to hit everything heavy.  As a result I'm a surprisingly good greenside bunker player.  While the sand was heavy that day, I couldn't exit this bunker.

I'll nominate the greenside bunker right of the first green at Chambers Bay.  Very narrow with heavy sand.  Easy to leave it in the bunker since anything a little strong will yield a 60 yards pitch back to the green.

Mike

[Ian Andrew]

I've watched a dozen players try to get out of the front right bunker at Pine Valley - I've seen nobody accomplish that task yet without a toss.

Deep is not an issue, a v-shaped interior sure is....

[Pat Burke]

As simple as it is, the back bunker on 12 at Augusta National.
Actually a basic  ;)shot, but the setting and Rae's Creek create a lot of "digging"

[Scott Warren]

I've not played it yet, but could it be Hell's Half Acre?

There's no way to avoid it by playing around it and you're likely hitting a fairway wood or hybrid off the deck to carry it... that's pretty fierce.

[Tim Bert]

It is not the hardest individual bunker, but the most daunting recovery shot at Pacific Dunes is from the first left-hand fairway bunker on #18.  It's a reasonably deep and narrow bunker in and of itself, but the daunting part is that the only two options are to wuss out, or to try to carry about 175 yards over the big sandy waste and the ridge on the left with your next shot.

You beat me to it.  Been there, done that.  Par is nearly impossible from that bunker.

Par is nearly impossible from that tee!   

[Mike Hamilton]

It is not the hardest individual bunker, but the most daunting recovery shot at Pacific Dunes is from the first left-hand fairway bunker on #18.  It's a reasonably deep and narrow bunker in and of itself, but the daunting part is that the only two options are to wuss out, or to try to carry about 175 yards over the big sandy waste and the ridge on the left with your next shot.

That was definitely not a very nice spot to hide a bunker after such a great walk , Tom.   I've played the hole once and managed to try both options.

The right green side bunker on Bandon Trails 14 isn't a gimme either.

[Dan Herrmann]

Speaking of Bandon - How about Bandon Dunes' 15th?  

It's 14 feet deep.

I'd also nominate those beauties behind ANGC #13.  For other than expert golfers, the fear of dunking the ball in Rae's Creek would be very understandable.

[Geoffrey_Walsh]

Fishers Island and Yale have some unbelievable ones...

Either front left or back bunkers on #3 at Fishers could be a possibility as well as the front left on #8 at Yale.

[Mark Hissey]

I hate to sound self-serving, but the bunkers on the 3rd at Sebonack is very difficult. The one that is toughest for me however is the triple pronged bunker at the back of the 15th.

I both hate it and love it.

[Jeff Fortson]

I know one other post above mentioned it but this has to take the cake.  There maybe smaller, tougher bunkers, but their isn't one more fierce than this that I know of in the U.S.

#16 PGA West Stadium

[Pete_Pittock]

The front wall bunker at Pacific Dunes #6.

[Kevin Pallier]

Either front left or back bunkers on #3 at Fishers could be a possibility

Geoffrey

Good call with #3 at Fishers Island...it immediately came to my mind and here is another picture of it



For something a bit differerent - God help someone if they land in this one...

[Garland Bayley]

So many nice cute little bunkers. How about something in 5 and 7 acre range?
Plus, the sand is extremely soft, and seldom raked. Saving par? You might think more about 4 strokes just to get out of the foot prints! Sometimes to enable progress around the golf course to continue, a hand wedge is the best expedient.

[Chris Buie]

Fishers Island and Yale have some unbelievable ones...

Yeah, I found it more than a bit daunting to walk down an entire flight of stairs to get to the bunkers at Yale.  That was a new thing for me. 

[Jeff Fortson]

So many nice cute little bunkers. How about something in 5 and 7 acre range?
Plus, the sand is extremely soft, and seldom raked. Saving par? You might think more about 4 strokes just to get out of the foot prints! Sometimes to enable progress around the golf course to continue, a hand wedge is the best expedient.

Is that played as a bunker!?  Holy crap!  How many rakes does that thing have around it?  That has to be a waste area, no?

[TEPaul]

The two toughest bunkers to get out of in my experience were actually on the same hole---PV's #10----the DAH an the upper left end of the bunker greenside left of #10---but only the way it used to be.

If I say so myself when I was playing pretty good tournament golf I was a really good bunker player, particularly with short high bunker shots. Give me a fairly normal stance and enough room to swing and I was pretty confident I could pull it off and almost always did. But I also had the equipment for it. I may've been the first one in my region that had a 60 degree wedge (PING).

And for what I would consider a few very important reasons I would also definitely divide all bunkers and recovery from them into two very distinct and different categories;

1. Greenside bunkers
2. All others that are not greenside.

I say that because what you are basically trying to do between #1 and #2 is just so different, at least to me.

But I would be happy to list about a dozen or more of the fiercest greenside bunkers I ever came across other than the two I mentioned above. Most all of them are pretty well known and the only ones I recall that really did concern me about getting out of because ironically they may've been problematic for me because I had probably become a product of my own success in greenside bunkers in that I just could not stand to NOT go at the hole!! 

[JSlonis]

Based on this week's Crump Cup, I'm going to say the fiercest bunker resides in front of the 18th green at Pine Valley.  I'm not even sure which one it was, but in qualifying, two unfortunate players exited the 18th green after holing out for a 14 and an 18.

Both players hit it short into one of the bunkers with their approach shot and apparently just couldn't get the ball out.  I've got to find out where they were because I've been in some of the front bunkers there and haven't had much trouble blasting out in one shot.  Obviously, I must have avoided the spot they were in.  One of the poor guys was only 3 over par playing the 18th and shot 87.  "Only at Pine Valley." 

[TEPaul]

Jamie:

That's a good point there about those bunkers in front of #18 green and I was thinking earlier about some of the toughest bunkers I've ever run across aren't just really tough because it's so hard to come out on the line to the pin but that sometimes that's about the only reasonable way to come out of them.

And I also think that kind of thing just might be something that Pine Valley has a whole lot of compared to other courses.

Even though I've never been in them in competition clearly if you can't come out of the bunker behind #8 or #15 at the green what other option do you have without making things potentially worse?

And the high left side of that bunker greenside left on #10 was basically the same way. It was so hard to come up onto the green because it was so narrow there was no room to swing well enough. I saw so many good players try it and fail continuously. For the more experienced in that particular place you just knew the smartest thing to do was to putt the ball down the bunker to the front of the green where it was so much wider and then go from there.

[Kyle Harris]

Front left of the 13th green at Jeffersonville. It's DA sized and situated in such a way that any ball captured by it will face a very odd angle to any hole location on the green. Extracting one's self from the bunker is a fairly easy affair, however, it would take considerable skill and luck to have a reasonable putt once the ball has finished rolling.

Pretty well any greenside bunker that holds the ball in the most awkward position relative to the green and next shot would be my consideration for fiercest.

[John Kirk]

I had a very tough time when I trickled the ball into the little back bunker on Old Macdonald #6, the Long hole.  Took me three to get out, with the third shot well played.  Small but fierce little bastard pot bunker.

Thinking about it some more, other qualifiers at the Bandon resort include a back left bunker on the Old Macdonald #7 hole, and the bunkers short and right (and way below) the 14th green at Pacific Dunes.

[Steve_ Shaffer]

Kyle,


Here goes from JB's photos:

[Mike Hogan]

Here is one I have had some trouble on. Upper Green Bunker #9 Pac Dunes.