We used them at Royal Queensland at 3,6,11,16 and 18 - and If I heard 'I hit a perfect shot and it went intoi the bunker' once I heard it a thousand times. As Chris says golfers often hate them because their definition of a perfect shot is one hit well that goes straight - rather than a shot that perfectly sets up what is to follow.
At the 18th at RQ a member complained about the small bunker in the middle of the fairway, 250 off the tee.
There is 30 yards of fairway right of it and 25 left of it.
He agreed that 30 yards was a reasonable width - so I suggested that if we grew all the left fairway as rough the bunker would no longer be in the middle but in the left rough - and therefore it would be ok.
To his credit he immediately saw the folly of his argument and said 'I have never thought of it like that!'
I think the reason many people do not like centre line bunkering is that most people have trouble enough finding 50% of fairways anyway (even pros hit only 70%-ish).
That's because most people are not scratch handicappers. As a mid handicapper myself (11), I can relate to this.
Yet I love centre line bunkers if they make you choose between either going left or right OR laying up (The higher the handicap, or rather the bigger the variance from the target line on a players' drives, the more a centerline bunker works as a cross hazard I think).
Often the choice is too obvious (left or right) and the centre line bunker is just an obstacle that narrows the target zone, or works as a cross hazard for all but the very straightest of drivers. If there is enough width as in your example, combined with the option to lay up, the centre line bunker works for all levels of players I think.
Centre line bunkers seem to work especially well on par 5's IMHO. Where a riskier drive can than set up a chance to get home in two, or an easy second. Alternatively a 'safe' drive can result in a riskier second. I like this concept.
Brett:
If you move your cursor over the thread title, one can read the first sentence of the text in the initial post. That usually reveals the Thread content, if it is not in the title.