Bunkers

HAZARDS IN COURSE ARCHITECTURE
Basic Criteria:
As one would expect, basic criteria change very little, but there are noticeable shifts in emphasis with changing societal values.

In 1996, the criteria of good golf architecture, compared with the ones in 2005, listed below:

Hazards:
Perhaps the element of golf that has changed the least over the past century and a half is hazards. The basic theory of hazard is that they complicate or influence golf shot making within their confines, so that golfers wish to avoid them, and, in doing so, create a strategy of play. Golf courses without hazards tend to be pretty boring, but using too many hazards, making the golf course too hard and no fun for golfers, is equally bad. The golf course architects seek to find the ideal balance between boring and brutal that produces the greatest pleasure and excitement for golfers.

Types of hazards:

Golf course architects have the following palette of materials to work with to define the strategic nature of their creation:
1. Long grass
2. Non turf vegetation
3. Slopes
4. Mounds
5. Depressions
6. Grass traps
7. Sand bunkers (traps)
8. Rocks, boulder, and stone
9. Man-made structures
10. Trees
11. Water

Further, there are site-specific factors, such as wind, topography, altitude, temperature, property boundaries, relative humidity, and sun, that can be used in combination with the above list of materials, or can stand on their own to influence golf shot making. Because there are so many types of hazards and combinations of options, no two golf courses are alike.

Hazard variations:
Adding further variety to the array of hazard presentations is the fact that any one element from these lists can be presented in many different forms. For example, sand bunkers can be flat sand, flat sand with raised earthworks, gently sloping sand, sharply sloping sand, small pot bunkers, monster bunkers, man-made bunkers, natural bunkers, bunkers shaped as symbols, smooth-edge bunkers, rough-edge bunkers, articulated-edge bunkers, crater bunkers, or pop-up bunkers that contain white silica sand, brown or off-white calcareous sand, or yellow, black, or red industrial made sand. Bunkers can have rounded sand particles that produce fried egg lies, angular sand that packs hard, fine sand that blows in the wind, sand that holds water, and stays moist, or combinations thereof. Bunkers can be raked, furrowed, compacted, or left unattended. Bunkers can be designed so that they are easy to play out of or made so that it is impossible to advance the ball towards the hole. Bunkers can contain islands of grass or landscaping, as well as trees or stumps, rocks, ledges, or boulders. Bunkers can be prominently displayed on the golf scape or they can be hidden. The bunker edge can be made to reject rolling golf balls or suck then in. There can be on solitary bunker, clusters of bunkers, waves of bunkers liked the church pews of Oakmont, or bunkers that run the length of the entire golf hole. The obvious point is that there are lots of ways to make sand bunkers as hazards. As mentioned, hazards are intended to complicate the striking of a golf ball within their margins. Notice that it is only the golf ball that needs to be in the hazard, not necessarily the golfer. Anyone who has played much links golf has at some time found his or her ball in a sunken pot bunker, where the only way to play the shot was to kneel down outside the bunker, reach in and hope to exert enough force on the ball to get it out. Some hazards, like out of bounds, deep water, thick vegetation, or precipitous terrain, don´t even permit striking the ball, so another ball must be put into play; these are considered the most sever hazards. The point is that hazards can be mild or wild, and given a choice, golfers would prefer to avoid them. That is easy to understand.

Penal Design:
The most severe philosophy of hazard placement, and easiest to understand and implement, is called “penal” design. This form of design provides small target areas within the golf hole and defines those landing zones with hazards that must be carried or are very close to the target area. To miss the designated landing zone means being in a hazard of one type or another, with varying skill levels required to extricate one´s golf ball. The more difficult the recovery shot from the hazard, the more penal the golf hole can be labelled. Penal design offers few I any ways to avoid the hazard except with skilful shot making. Even touring professional sometimes complain that a golf course is too hard to play, especially if there are natural influences like wind or rain. Penal design was one of the first design philosophies because very little construction was required to achieve and maximize its impact. In addition, the early architects were golf pros. So they saw golf as a form of competition, and the more difficult they made the golf courses, the more they believed it would distinguish the best players. Also, many of the early golf course designers, like old Tom Morris, were pious men who believed misdeeds should be harshly punished to act as a deterrent. Undoubtedly, this belief was carried over into their view of the severity of hazards. Interestingly, one of the most famous and severe hazards in all of golf was the road hole bunker (number 17 on The Old Course at St. Andrews). Recently, the Links Trust that manages those golf courses decided that the road hole bunker has become too severe and was slowing down play, and rebuilt it to make it less deep, the front less high, and the out slopes softer. As can be imagined, there was much gnashing of teeth and quarrelling over this decision, but in the end it was done. Whether that decision was right or wrong will be argued for years.

So according to golf design, any type of hazard is acceptable. Meaning that some of our bunker hazard are maybe a little more penalising, but totally acceptable. (Improve your Golf shots, and don´t blame it all on the hazards…!!!!…)

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