Augusta bunkers

[mike_beene]

Would the bunkers at Augusta National look better( more to scale) if they were brown? I assume the bunkers were not white originally? Everything does not have to be natural, and Augusta has done well with a Disney/ Fantasyland look. People enjoy escaping reality for a time, and the over the top conditions (including pure white sand)provide the look.

[Niall C]

Mike


I'm not sure the colour of the sand is the issue (assuming you think there is an issue). I just find the scale of them and the general shapelessness of a lot of them not very appealing. I'll caveat that comment by saying I not actually been there and commenting on what I've seen on TV.


Niall

[Tim Martin]

Mike


I'm not sure the colour of the sand is the issue (assuming you think there is an issue). I just find the scale of them and the general shapelessness of a lot of them not very appealing. I'll caveat that comment by saying I not actually been there and commenting on what I've seen on TV.


Niall

Niall-I don’t know that you would change your mind but nearly everyone that goes to the tournament comes away with takeaways that aren’t apparent on TV.

[jeffwarne]

Mike


I'm not sure the colour of the sand is the issue (assuming you think there is an issue). I just find the scale of them and the general shapelessness of a lot of them not very appealing. I'll caveat that comment by saying I not actually been there and commenting on what I've seen on TV.


Niall

The bunkers look unappealing on TV-especially from an overhead, and are quite glorious and terrifying in person.
TV fails to display the sheer depth and scale of them.
I have less of a problem with the whiteness on that emerald green backdrop from the annual rye.




The originals didn't look overly appealing to me, but then again, that's just a guy looking at a picture.
The "originals", or at least older versions, were smaller, and some looked out of of scale to me the other way(too small)
But then again, that's just looking at an out of context picture.



I firmly believe the lack of BIGNESS is one of the main charms of golf in the UK and Ireland, and the reason Americans cherish their visits.
Sadly, we rarely import the thing that makes those places so cool and timeless(scale)




Way OT-Augusta is a good example of how just about EVERY SINGLE THING in golf has grown.
Some things, IMHO, are not better when bigger, and recently, especially this year(curmudgeon alert) I concluded that Augusta has crossed the threshhold from cutting edge to simply never ending scale,growth and BIGNESS, sometimes innovating for the sake of innovating.(if they want real innovation they should investigate a way for a patron to have some clue how a player not on the leaderboard is doing-manual leaderboards often don't have all the updated leaders-especially before Sunday-and there's only one scoreboard with ALL players on the edge of #1)
Despite the fun of watching manual leaderboards, which I do enjoy, when you attend live, you feel as if you missed nearly all of the event.
But I digress...

[Mark Pearce]

I firmly believe the lack of BIGNESS is one of the main charms of golf in the UK and Ireland, and the reason Americans cherish their visits.
Sadly, we rarely import the thing that makes those places so cool and timeless(scale)

Interesting.  My abiding memory of Yale and Lawsonia is the bigness.  And I loved it.  I think that we all enjoy difference.

[jeffwarne]

I firmly believe the lack of BIGNESS is one of the main charms of golf in the UK and Ireland, and the reason Americans cherish their visits.
Sadly, we rarely import the thing that makes those places so cool and timeless(scale)

Interesting.  My abiding memory of Yale and Lawsonia is the bigness.  And I loved it.  I think that we all enjoy difference.

agreed.
and to be fair, nearly all smaller scale places were designed for a ball/game that players hit it 25% shorter.
They probably felt pretty big at the time

[Niall C]

I firmly believe the lack of BIGNESS is one of the main charms of golf in the UK and Ireland, and the reason Americans cherish their visits.
Sadly, we rarely import the thing that makes those places so cool and timeless(scale)

Jeff


I totally get your point about seeing it in person which is why I caveated my comment. I also agree with the comment about aerial views and one of the reasons I think Augusta is so memorable on TV is because of the scale of the undulations and movement. Even TV can't flatten out those contours completely they way they can with a lot of courses. However aerials don't work so well with bunkers that are based on viewing them in perspective as opposed to viewing from above.


With regards your comments above, I always thought the difference in scale was more between old and modern rather than UK and US but will bow to your superior experience.


Niall

[jeffwarne]

I firmly believe the lack of BIGNESS is one of the main charms of golf in the UK and Ireland, and the reason Americans cherish their visits.
Sadly, we rarely import the thing that makes those places so cool and timeless(scale)

With regards your comments above, I always thought the difference in scale was more between old and modern


Niall

Agreed 100%
and for the life of me it's so hard to see why lovers of old/UK/Irish golf are against a rolback and the ability to produce courses of similar charm.
I guess people just want to use large scale equipment on small scale courses.


But then I really like very few modern courses.
Most feel overdesigned with fear of a quirky odd or God forbid weak hole.
How many would design the 18th at Old Berwick today.(or the previous 17 for that matter [size=78%])[/size]

[Ben Sims]

When I was on the golf course staff in 2012, the absolute number one thing that caught me off guard was how big the place was/is. The whiteness of the bunkers wasn’t overt, and I knew the greens were going to look more extreme than I expected. I was prepared for that. The two things that really never let up, however, was the relentlessness of the walk and the overall size of the golf course. I remember standing in the middle of several hole corridors and marveling at the sheer size of the playing areas.


Which is why the bunkering is a way way different animal in person. They’re huge.


On early Wednesday morning before play, a gully washer of a storm passed through. It dumped. A tree fell on a new and large bathroom just north of 6 green/7 tee (if I remember correctly). That tree was gone and the structure rebuilt very quickly. That storm also required a lot of work to get 38 of the 44 bunkers good to go. The sheer amount of shovel and rake work by a massive crew to get the bunkers on 5 back in shape was mind boggling.


This is my way of saying, there’s a place for big in golf architecture. That said, yesterday I was bored on an overnight in Providence and Uber’ed over to Wannamoisett and walked as much of the perimeter of the course as I could. Utterly charming from the looks of it. Small is good too.