How many bunkers? What's a bunker?

[cireyamel]

I was just scooching around the internet on a holiday-weekend morning, and I saw that a club I belong to is officially listed at one prominent golf course site as having 61-70 bunkers. Which made me chuckle, because I've visited them all, I'm sure, but I never thought to count them, either. I can just see the caddies or a junior pro in the pro shop debating how many they had and saying, "61-70," to the person asking the question. What I really suspect is someone filled out a profile and marked the "61-70" box for that question.

So I went out to count them today.

Pretty dang accurate description, depending on how you count them...

Because...I then fluttered online to a pretty good course my family built. They had "71-80." on the website. But I know the exact number and it's less. So I had to walk that and count.

They counted all the "grass bunkers" on the list. Which isn't a bad idea. I watched the course get designed, built and produce a USGA champion, and I know that those "bunkers" with the really long grass are meant to penalize you just as much as the sand.

So that's why I ask, what's a bunker?

I think I've decided it's any deep impression on the course's regular lines of play that tries to penalize you for being there. I'm sure there's a more technical definition, but that's just what I came away with after thinking about, and walking, both courses today.

cy

p.s. And it was really cool because I shot below net-par on both courses. I've never pulled that double before. I usually just get too tired out on the course I played second. Or I just plain sucked for several holes on one of the two, over 36 holes in a day. Nothing like a Monday holiday and playing some decent golf in great weather.

[Rafcin]

Straight from the USGA website:

Bunker
A “bunker’’ is a hazard consisting of a prepared area of ground, often a hollow, from which turf or soil has been removed and replaced with sand or the like.
Grass-covered ground bordering or within a bunker, including a stacked turf face (whether grass-covered or earthen), is not part of the bunker. A wall or lip of the bunker not covered with grass is part of the bunker.

The margin of a bunker extends vertically downward, but not upward. A ball is in a bunker when it lies in or any part of it touches the bunker.

My home course has exactly 41 bunkers

[iacas]

My home course is adding two fairway bunkers this year (one's done, one's nearly done). So that's +2 for me.

[NCGolfer]

Here is a rundown of the bunkers at my home course ( Tanglewood Championship ), site of the 1974 PGA.

#1: 1 fairway, 4 greenside
#2: 3 greenside
#3: 1 fairway, 3 greenside
#4: 1 fairway, 3 greenside
#5: 6 fairway, 4 greenside
#6: 4 fairway, 2 greenside
#7: 3 greenside
#8: 2 fairway, 3 greenside
#9: 2 fairway, 3 greenside
#10: 2 fairway, 4 greenside
#11: 4 fairway, 2 greenside
#12: 4 greenside
#13: 2 fairway, 4 greenside
#14: 2 fairway, 5 greenside
#15: 4 fairway, 4 greenside
#16: 5 greenside
#17: 3 fairway, 5 greenside
#18: 2 fairway, 3 greenside

That's right...100 bunkers in all. This is just from memory...

Robert Trent Jones must have had stock in sand at the time he designed it. I will say that a bunch of the traps never come into play though, but most of them are massive . For example, there are only two greenside bunkers on #11, but they run the entire lenght of the green on the left and right.

Erik, make sure your sand game is ready when you come down.

[shakespeare]

My home course has 54. I had to list them in order to count them out - not because I thought you guys wanted a breakdown of my course. What this random "counting" does not indicate is the vast size of most of them. As I was counting them, I came to realize that my course has some ridiculously large bunkers surrounding many green in along the fairways. So in a nutshell, simply counting them doesn't do much to indicate what the course offers. You have to know their size as well.

1 - 1 fairway, 3 greenside
2 - 1 greenside
3 - 2 fairway, 1 greenside
4 - 3 greenside
5 - 2 greenside
6 - 2 fairway, 1 greenside
7 - 3 fairway, 1 greenside
8 - 2 fairway, 1 greenside
9 - 2 fairway, 1 greenside
10 - 1 fairway, 1 greenside
11 - 3 greenside
12 - 2 fairway
13 - 3 fairway, 3 greenside
14 - 1 fairway, 3 greenside
15 - 1 fairway, 3 greenside
16 - 1 greenside
17 - 1 fairway, 1 greenside
18 - 3 fairway, 2 greenside
total = 54

[iacas]

My Course

1 - 2F, 1G*
2 - 3G*
3 - 2G
4 - 4G*
5 - 2G
6 - 2G
7 - 2G
8 - 2G
9 - 2G (sensing a pattern yet?)

10 - 3G*
11 - 2G
12 - 3G
13 - 2G*
14 - 3G
15 - 3G*
16 - 1F, 2G*
17 - 1G*
18 - 2G

Total: 42. The fairway bunkers on the 16th and 1st holes are new within the past year.

The ones with asterisks were redone within the past four or five years. Prior to that, nearly every hole simply had one on the left and one on the right side of the green.

[who00knows]

My home course is being completely redone. I will say they added ALOT more bunkers and my god they are all VERY VERY intimidating. I have been working on my sand shots ALOT lately to prepare. I still have until around may until the course is done. I will tell you one thing, They made the course VERY VERY hard. Majority of the members honestly will not be able to play the course at all! I hope it may draw some younger members in to the course. I am the youngest member (21) that isnt associated with their parents.