Should we get rid of bunker rakes?

Something positive about the return to golf after lockdown was the necessary simplifying of the game: a step back in time to a more streamlined, faster-flowing form of the sport that many found hugely refreshing. One element of this was the removal of rakes from the bunkers. Not only did it save time, but it also changed playing dynamics for the better.

Bunkers should be hazards to be avoided. When Tiger Woods won his first Open Championship at

St Andrews in 2000, he went 72 holes without finding one of the Old Course’s multiple, punishing traps. The accuracy and careful strategy required to achieve the feat was truly remarkable; it was key to his dominant victory.

But on most modern courses, bunkers aren’t enough of a threat to significantly alter strategy. A flat fairway bunker can be played from and manicured greenside bunkers are no issue for most reasonably competent amateurs. For professionals, they’re preferable to grass.

Thus, the modern golfer plays aggressively without considering the sand

– it’s not a significant problem. How different and more interesting would the game be if bunkers were actually proper, unpredictable hazards, as they are without rakes?

If finding a fairway bunker would, more often than not, result in at least one extra shot, almost all would be sure to lay up short of potential trouble, even at elite level. This would lead to a desirable reduction of emphasis on the bombed drive and an increase on the accurate one. If greenside bunkers presented a significant risk, players might be more wary of attempting the par 5 in two or of attacking the tough flag. It would bolster the tactical and technical challenge in golf, which has been diminished by modern technologies. says Jeremy Ellwood

Among the many things doing the rounds on social media following the resumption of golf in our brave new postlockdown world was the suggestion in some quarters that bunker rakes, which had been removed for virus-related reasons, should stay permanently removed. The notion was that we should all re-acquaint ourselves with the delights of playing from whatever sandy landscape previous golfers had left for us as golfers of yesteryear had to, and potentially speed up play in the process.

I’m all for simplifying a game that has, in many ways, become too much of a precisely controlled science rather than a pleasurable pastime. But this would be a backward step too far in a world that occasionally looks back on history with rose-tinted spectacles when it comes to how good the good old days really were.

This, for me, is a misguided ‘ wasn’t the past great’ argument that would quickly be abandoned the moment its supporters found their ball nestling at the bottom of a vast footprint in an overfilled bunker. Chances are, they’d either still be there four shots later or reluctantly take a penalty drop, which could well end up plugged even from knee height.

I’m pretty sure I’ve never played with anyone who, on arriving at a bunker to find their ball in the unraked footprint of a previous customer, has expressed sheer delight at this opportunity to broaden their game’s creative repertoire. It’s more likely to be a string of expletives unprintable within these pages!

Heaven knows most golfers have enough trouble from perfectly raked bunkers, so any potential time saving from just walking off and leaving them would be more than countered by the additional time spent swishing around in the sand.