Bunkers - Part II

[Goran]

Just as Jeff Reel has always been fascinated of greensites and make the best ones, I have always been obsessed with the strategic values of bunkers but have always come up short. The standard bunkers in JN are usually just a few feet low because there is no point making them deeper bc you can play out with a 3W and just get a bit shorter. I started experimenting again with my heathland course, and did not succeed but at least got somewhere.

This screen shows a fairway bunker with no fake stuff like a wall in front of them, just a smooth looking bunker and no distortions and laid out at the same height as the fairway.



If landing in it, you have to go down to an Iron 4 and a high shot to get out. Not as good as I wanted, but an improvement I had not managed before. I did not even have to smooth with rings around it, I randomized and sank a smaller version of the sand a couple of times and then smoothed the whole sand. Not sure I can re-create it, but I wish I found this method 23 years ago when JN was played more



If interested in bunkers, here is a link to an article in Golf Club Atlas.

"While bunkers are inconvenient and frustrating to the player, they are essential to the core spirit of the game. They are used, in combination with other hazards, to define the risk and set the requirements of the hole. They are the architect’s most common tool to force players to make decisions and to think"

https://golfclubatlas.com/in-my-opinion ... an-andrew/

[Charlie]

You can create bunkers that will limit you to a wedge to get out. I did this on Hole 2 in Kilcairn Bay, with three bunkers in the fairway less than 100 yards from the green. See the attached screenshot.

https://i.imgur.com/nRuThaf.jpg

[Goran]

Was only going to take a quick look at the bunkers on the 2nd hole before doing some errands, but I had to play through the full course and now I am late lol. But worth it, a very nice course indeed!

All bunkers looked really good considering their deepness, it is impossible to make true pot bunkers with vertical walls. But these were the closest to it I have seen in GBC (or perhaps I have missed a lot during my absence). I am only talking about smoothed bunkers that are not distorted. I liked what you did on the 10th hole with plank objects to hide the distorded ground behind, it made it truly vertical. I forgot to test but perhaps even forcing a sideway shot if closer to the planks?

I found though that the club you can use is decided by your lie. A downslope most far away from the wall limits your club choice more than being on an upslope closer to the wall.
So when I moved my ball forward on my own screenshot I could hit out with an Iron 2. I am not a good golfer but I doubt even Balesteros could do that standing next to a steep uphill in a man-sized bunker.

So I guess the physics of the game makes this an impossible task, so I will let this go now