DO COURSES NEED BUNKERS?

This Top 100 has five courses without sand bunkers – so are they an essential strategic hazard... or a pointless waste of maintenance time and money?

You will find Royal Ashdown Forest, Piltdown, Kington, Berkhamsted and Painswick in this ranking, but you won’t find a single sand bunker on them when you play there. It got us thinking: how important are bunkers to a ‘good’ course? Let’s not forget, bunkers were initially nothing more than the sandy scrapes made by sheep and the wind – a far cry from today’s sharp-edged, sometimes revetted creations. They also clearly appeared a lot more randomly than with today’s precise placement. Against which, Stuart Paton’s use of a centre bunker on the 4th at Woking is said to have kick-started a Golden Era of entertaining, strategic architecture – and there is little doubt it is a brilliant piece of design. You’ll have your own views on the merit of bunkers – but here are some views to add to your thoughts...

The architects

“It astounds me so many clubs can live with redundant bunkers for so long. I always say that one well-placed bunker can do the job of three or four randomly placed ones. When we redesign bunkers, we are often reducing sand areas by at least 40 percent, plus taking out of play 10 to 15 percent of the total number. Bunkers are expensive to maintain and build; the replacement of sand bunkers with grassy hollows, swales and run-offs is welcomed. I’d be delighted to see this become more prevalent. I relish the opportunity to design a course without sand bunkers.” Jonathan Gaunt

“The great courses’ bunkering generally sits naturally in the landscape and landform. Modern bunkering ill-fitting to its environment should be avoided at all costs. The bunker is a hazard which should challenge the golfer, especially the better one going for a tighter line, and not penalise the weaker golfer struggling with the course or their game.” Tim Lobb

“A course needs to have a variety of hazards and consequences to make the game engaging. Sand bunkers may be an important tool to the architect, but they should not be the only option, nor are they always best suited – practically and playability speaking.” Clyde Johnson

“At Memorial Park, Brooks (Koepka) and I felt many bunkers add difficulty for the average player but are superfluous for the Tour player, so we built radically fewer than you’re used to seeing – only nine on the back nine.” Tom Doak

The panellists

“Some courses are almost defined by their bunkers while some don’t have a single one. When you are in desperate need of a four, the bunkerless 1st at Hoylake is no easier than Lytham’s last, where 17 bunkers await an errant shot. Classic architects advocated few, wellplaced traps over bunkers for the sake of bunkers.” Sam Cooper, Royal Liverpool

“I like bunkers and don’t think a bunkerless approach is appropriate for many courses. That said, I do think many modern designs are overbunkered. It’s not just the number of traps but the sheer volume of sand that concerns from a sustainability and maintenance perspective. Smaller, pot bunkers on the great links tend to be much easier to maintain than huge wasteland hazards, and work better to create strategy.” Darius Oliver, Peninsula Kingswood

“Anyone having got on the wrong side of the clever greenside mounding at Berkhampsted realises it represents no less of a recovery challenge.” Nick Dungay, West Sussex

“Instead of sand there are heather and natural, grassy pits to catch the unwary. Those who have ever played a ball lodged in heather, especially in blooms, know sand is infinitely preferable every time. The main difficulty is when those of us who are members at clubs with no bunkers travel away from home. That foreign sand is every bit as tricky as heather.” Steve Killick, Royal Ashdown Forest

The greenkeeper

“Courses don’t necessarily need sand bunkers – some of the world’s best holes don’t have any, although courses such as Royal Melbourne would not offer the same experience without.

Around the greens I believe questions can be asked from tight, firm lies created by runoffs and contouring. With recent rises in labour, transport and material costs, maintenance of bunkers has increased dramatically; after greens, it’s the second-most costly aspect of managing a course. On average, maintaining bunkers with an average of three per hole would take around 40 man hours per week – that’s one member of staff’s full-time job. I think a lot of links-style courses will resort to more natural ‘blow out’ sand scrapes that were common place at the start of the century.” John Mcloughlin, Wallasey