Goodbye sand traps

Tinker · 2021-11-13T14:13:09+00:00

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 s...

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.

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.

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.

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.

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?

Typhoon

Tinker We’re not short of funds. Short of quality help and a mish mosh of priorities… where would I start?🙄

We have no superintendent. They have a guy on call that tells them what to do and when.
Kids… there are a bunch of high school kids that are just clueless. They’re like town workers.. 3 of them in a work cart emptying barrels. It’s a one person job. But there is not enough older staff to check up on them.
Weird priorities… they add sand to some of the traps while other have big rocks in them. They even reconfigured one bunker. Other bunkers they made though look like someone dumped sand on the grass🙄. But they made a really nice waste area with grasses in between 2 holes where the sprinklers can’t reach. Came out great.

Cwing

Golf revenues are at record highs. Could be maintenance staff is limited but I’d guess they mostly don’t want to maintain them anymore.

Rickochet

Few of the public courses in my area have taken care of the traps since Covid started. They still drag them occasionally but few leave rakes out. So, if my group hits a ball in the sand and it lands in a footprint we just roll it to a smooth spot and play it from there. You are still having to hit from the sand but not tossing it out of the bunker entirely like I so many doing now. With everyone hurting for help right now I imagine the golf courses are no different and maybe worse since most are seasonal. If doing away with traps saves the courses so be it. If people want pristine traps go join a club that maintains them and deal with the membership cost.

scotts33

Rickochet If people want pristine traps go join a club that maintains them and deal with the membership cost.

👍

And on the flip side if you have traps that are not maintained also reflect that in the pricing from what I see that is not the case. Charge too much for crappy maintained courses because of the Covid influx of golfers and get away with it. I for one stopped playing a few courses just for that reason.

Sneakylong

There's also different types of sand. Some better than others. My old home course (Fox Hollow) is a great Robert Trent Jones design (his last), but the bunkers always sucked because of the type of sand they used.

Lee Trevino was playing a qualifier there one time and someone asked him what he thought of the course? Trevino's reply, "they must've got a good deal on the sand." lol

accufitgolf

Play the bad bunkers as a Waste Area meaning you have to play it as is but you can ground your club.

Par4QC

accufitgolf I will continue to NOT destroy my irons, and will just lay out of those 'ground under repair/needing repair' areas. Without penalty, if I may add. 😏

Typhoon

Par4QC I will continue to NOT destroy my irons, and will just lay out of those 'ground under repair/needing repair' areas. Without penalty, if I may add. 😏

Absolutely! Yeah, let me be stubborn and ruin my own clubs for the integrity of playing 9 holes holes at some shit assed golf course playing by myself.

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