BUNKERS A hazard lost in
When grazing sheep sheltered from cold sea winds in the hummocks and depressions of Scottish linksland centuries ago, no one would have guessed the resulting sandy hole would cause debate in the pages of a magazine some 300 years later.
Tim Lobb, principal and golf course architect in Thomson, Perrett and Lobb, a leading international golf course design business, explains why bunkers are the forgotten hazard of golf course design.
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he earliest bunkers formed when sheep hollows deepened and winds whipped up sand into these shelters on the links of St Andrews and East Lothian. The earliest greenkeepers let the sand remain uneven and lie naturally, while the grasses around the bunker edge were wispy, wild and penal, creating a beautiful yet fiendish hazard.
A visit to an early bunker was an encounter with lady luck, with footprints and blast marks the downsides of misfortune, but fates readily accepted by golfers who appreciated they had gone in a hazard and were due serious penalty. At the risk of sounding like an antiquated scholar, how times have changed?
More and more modern golf course designs show little evidence that bunkering is still considered a key part of golf strategy and an
the sands of time? T
understated but effective hazard. Lush green courses stretch out into the distance, entire holes flanked by snaking sandy worms, or unusually shaped sand traps, tended to by exhausted greenkeepers with sore backs, while everyday hackers leave these courses confused as to whether they just played golf or ran an endurance race through the Sahara desert.
Bunkering has become the most overused and least understood feature of modern golf course design. It has become a designer’s opportunity to lavish praise on themselves with ornamental, but meaningless, use of land and sand, and, sadly, a bunker’s real purpose has been lost in the sands of time. Placement of bunkers is about strategy, shot by shot, hole by hole, and the strategy of an individual hole should always appreciate the placement of individual bunkers.
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