Could Bunkerless Golf Courses Gain Footing?
At the conclusion of a site visit for a much-needed overhaul of the aging Eisenhower municipal golf course outside Annapolis, Md., consulting architect Andrew Green stopped 50 yards from the 18th green, turned to Damian Cosby, chief of golf operations for Anne Arundel County, and asked, “What do you think about going to no bunkers?” […]
Arch 101: How Bunkers Look
The highest form of the art of golf course architecture is blending the design seamlessly into the surrounds through the use of shaping/grading or vegetation. I certainly feel that way about bunkers. Perhaps, in my case, it is a nod to the original eroded, burrowing animal scrapes from which the sand bunker evolved. However, as […]
Gil Hanse’s Architecture 101: How Bunkers Look
There’s more to a bunker’s visual appeal than meets the eye The highest form of the art of golf course architecture is blending the design seamlessly into the surrounds through the use of shaping/grading or vegetation. I certainly feel that way about bunkers. Perhaps, in my case, it is a nod to the original eroded, […]
Gil Hanse’s Architecture 101: Where Bunkers Lie
The placement of bunkers on a course is one of the key elements in creating strategy Having started our examination of golf course architecture with greens—and appropriately ascribing sovereignty to them over all other features—we turn to the most visible feature on any course, the sand bunker. Bunkers have always had two distinct characteristics as […]
Revetted Bunkers in Mexico? You’ll Find Them at this New Cabo Course
By Erik Matuszewski Revetted bunkers were introduced to golf in Scotland, almost 5,500 miles from the windswept shores of Mexico’s Baja Peninsula. They were originally designed as a way to stop wind erosion, helping shore up the face of bunkers whipped by the wind. Anyone who’s visited the ever-growing golf hotbed of Los […]
Golf’s Greatest Bunkers
During the 1980s and early ’90s, this fledgling golf addict would watch the European Open from the Old Course at Sunningdale Golf Club outside London and enjoy the ever-entertaining Peter Alliss mixing witty, playfully acerbic dialogue about the players with keen insights about the course. One observation in particular has remained with me these past […]
Bunkers in Baghdad: Bringing Golf to Our Military
In the mountains of Afghanistan, a U.S. Marine Officer carefully lines up his shot. He stands atop a small platform built from two-by-fours, squeezes his grip a little tighter, and fires at his target about 200 yards away. A puff goes up as his dimpled white Callaway hits the rocky slopes about 20 feet […]
Q&A with Billy Fuller, Founder of Better Billy Bunkers
Perhaps you’ve heard of the “Better Billy Bunkers.” Billy Fuller, 66, developed his bunker-construction method while superintendent at Augusta National from 1981–1986. The original ‘Billy Bunkers’ were introduced in 1994, and since then more than 600 courses around the world have installed them. What prompted the development of Billy Bunkers? When I got to Augusta […]
Bunker Mentality: An Interview with a Golf Bunker
Why are bunkers where they are? What purpose do they serve? Are they even fair? To answer these pressing questions and more, there’s only one place to go: Directly to the sandy source
5 Myths About Bunkers
Architect Jim Urbina says we no longer understand their true purpose 1) Bunkers are there to penalize golfers Nothing could be further from the truth. The great old-time architects said a hazard isn’t just for punishment but to make the game more interesting. Golfers take bunkers personally: Those of us in the design business see […]
