Loss of historic bunker shapes - 13th at Deal

[Rich Goodale]

This is making a mountain out of a molehill; or a functional bunker out of a rathole--Soviet realist tendency, function trumps form; or the desecration of an irretrievable "work of art"--the Bourgeois Mackenziephile Reactionary Forum--form trumps function.

We've all been over this for a very long time and I don't know of many people being swayed, one way or the other.  Either you like to play golf or you like to look at golf or different fra ctions of both of hte above.  As for me, I know Deal pretty well, and those bunkers never sent me any aesthetic message, just a blunt "Carry me you bastard or drop a shot!"

I doubt if the new bunker form will change the hole, aesthetically oir functionaly, except in regards to maintenance, which is good.

[Bill_McBride]

My favorite memory of the past 20 years of personal golf is a foursomes match with partner Joe Fairey at Deal, when I hammered a drive over those bunkers.  Fairey muttered, "270 yards, McBride, 270 yards."

I was thrilled.  

[Ally Mcintosh]

This is making a mountain out of a molehill; or a functional bunker out of a rathole--Soviet realist tendency, function trumps form; or the desecration of an irretrievable "work of art"--the Bourgeois Mackenziephile Reactionary Forum--form trumps function.

We've all been over this for a very long time and I don't know of many people being swayed, one way or the other.  Either you like to play golf or you like to look at golf or different fra ctions of both of hte above.  As for me, I know Deal pretty well, and those bunkers never sent me any aesthetic message, just a blunt "Carry me you bastard or drop a shot!"

I doubt if the new bunker form will change the hole, aesthetically oir functionaly, except in regards to maintenance, which is good.

This time I am with Richard...

Being a member of a similar traditional club like Deal, I've watched changes happen by the greens crew over the last few years beyond what I'd call normal presentation and maintenance.... Luckily, I've been in tune with most of them and it is fine when it is like that... But there are a few changes that I haven't liked so much. They upset me at first. But over time, I realised I had to let go or I was going to ruin the experience of playing golf at my own course. There is an order of architectural changes that matter - changing the shape of one or two bunkers (whilst still maintaining the actual same bunker style) is way down there.

[Mark Chaplin]

Sean - carry the bunkers on 11, 13 and 15 and you may/will end up in trouble, it's surprising how many golfers fall into this "trap". Is that good architecture??