Goodbye sand traps

Tinker

The last 4 courses I played, a couple basic public and a couple a notch up, had one thing in common, no normal maintained traps. I’m considered a very good sand player and making a text book sand shot has become impossible. One course is Gill Hanse first design effort and started out as a fantastic 140 slope upscale course. It has gone through a few owners and has become a 40 dollar public. I’ll give the current owner credit for keeping it in good shape but he’s doing something that sets me in a fit, he’s turning the traps on many holes into grass/ weed bunkers. He tells players to drop on the other sand bunkers because they’re full of rocks. I talked to him the last time I played, a couple weeks ago and he said that some of the bunkers took 4 guys to maintain and his current plan has the course profitable for the first time in a long time. Might be true but he’s screwing up a top notch design. The second hole has an elevated green with a huge deep bunker on the left side. This bunker defines the second shot and he’s letting it grow in. Am I crazy or is he destroying the design intent of the course. The other courses I mentioned have just stopped maintaining their traps and are mud or hard dirt. The future of public golf?

fatshot

Tinker I'm seeing the same thing at several courses we play. I can think of one city owned course
(also on the second hole, BTW....a par three though) where a huge bunker you used to have to avoid at all cost is
now grass and weeds. The many other bunkers on that course are maintained, but just barely. They haven't seen
new sand in a few years, so if the greens crew or playing customers don't rake them they're really tough to play out of. On another course, I can think of at least 2-3 former fairway bunkers that are now just grass. In our travel
group we have agreed to adopt a "rake and roll" rule if you find your ball in a bunker, due to little-to-no maintenance.

OTOH, the course I consider my "home" course was just taken over by new owners this year, and one of the first things they did was install new white sand in all the bunkers. I'm not a particularly good bunker player, but I'll have little chance of ever improving if bunkers and/or bunker maintenance at most of the other courses I play continues to be neglected.

DonM

Tinker Removal of bunkers to save costs is a trend. It happened at a couple of courses I have played regularly. One operator told me they were taking out the ones that were mostly decorative and not really strategic. He said if it’s one that no decent shot should find, it’s gone.

livegolf

Tinker Agree! So @Subsonic and I talk about this all the time. Modern golf courses are designed without much consideration to the owners to maintain. Cut the bunkers in half, maintain them and everyone wins in our opinion.

johnnydoom

Same thing is happening at many of my local courses. Not only that, but players have become unaccustomed to raking bunkers. Most of the shots I played from the sand this year were from a foot print or a depression. Must be a cost/time issue. My whole short game stinks, so it doesn’t matter too much to me though. Bunkers, whether they are grass or sand cause me problems.

fatshot

johnnydoom I noticed that last year, a lot of courses did NOT put rakes out, probably b/c of covid.
So, I suppose a lot of players got out of the habit of raking after a shot. Now, even though rakes are back out there, lots of golfers are not making the effort.

LBlack14

If you're not gonna maintain 'em, get rid of 'em.

Par4QC

LBlack14 1 local muni is doing that, the past couple years.
Most others should just get rid of them also. They are always harder than the dirt, full of rocks bigger than peas.
I do not play from them, only at a couple courses where they actually have sand similar to PGA quality, and take care of the bunkers.
And, it is a rare occasion that I am ever in one.😉

scotts33

I am guessing this kind of no sand trap golf course is a thing of the future. I believe we all see this on muni courses it's why I use a low bounce wedge and have developed a chipping motion from greenside bunkers. Light fluffy sand in my area doesn't exist on public golf courses and hasn't for many years.

Eguller

scotts33 I am guessing this kind of no sand trap golf course is a thing of the future.

Played a course in Myrtle Beach area that had mostly 'Waste Areas'.
This really defined the preferred landing areas. Not bad & low maintenance.

Bravopilot

Still better than being replaced with agua. Economics. How much are people willing to pay to be frustrated with sand traps.

Par4QC

Eguller 'Waste Areas'.

It all depends on what the 'waste' is, in those areas. Would you hit your brand new irons from that spot?

Rocks/stones have no place on a golf course, except for parking lots/banks of ponds. Here, they use them for bunker 'fill', apparently. And, people actually do hit from them, digging deep, throwing all of it up on the greens. I shake my head when I see all the stones embedded in the greens, then wonder what that club now looks like. SMH

Walterjn

Par4QC I shake my head when I see all the stones embedded in the greens

I wonder what the mower blades look like...

Eguller

Par4QC Rocks/stones have no place on a golf course, except for parking lots/banks of ponds. Here, they use them for bunker 'fill', apparently.

Thus the removal of loose stones rule. It is the hidden ones that make you grind your teeth. 😖

rsvman2

On the course I played Thursday, there were plenty of nicely maintained sand bunkers, but it was a grass trap on seven that cost me two shots; much harder to get a decent shot from the deep marshmallow Bermuda than from sand.

Cwing

It seems most are dropping the sand bunkers for grass bunkers, etc. it seems you have to go to resort courses, private clubs or beach areas to play real sand.

pellmell

Cwing It seems most are dropping the sand bunkers for grass bunkers,

Yeah, and turn those grass bunkers into 6 inch rough.

sdandrea1

Sand bunkers are expensive to keep nice, so I'm told. If ya gotta cut costs to stay in the black, then eliminating some is one method.

azgreg

If I designed muni it wouldn't have any bunkers, just low collection areas.

Tinker

I get the fairway traps that don’t get much play but green side traps and ability to get up and down are a big part of the game and a big part of a good score. You can be the biggest bomber on the course but if you take 3 to get out of a bunker that tends to be an equalizer.

Typhoon

Our traps have a ton of rocks. They maintain them to a degree... just driving the machine through them and pulling weeds. I move my ball in them or sometimes out of them because of rocks. Fuck that...I'm not wrecking a club.

Course I used to play took bunkers in front of the greens out on some holes so you could skull the ball onto the green. They said they did it to speed up play. I told them, nice job ruining the course.

Tinker

Typhoon your a good guy to ask. Is your course tight on funds or they just don’t care?