defendit numerus

Hi all.. I'm back... been a while I know but then there's been a little bit gone on, got slapped by the ol 'Health Stick' again... All good now though, nowt like helping spend the NHS budget.. and had to really knuckle down to concentrate on work since.. failed miserably concentrating on that so thought when I really should be knocking the number of late quotes down and out that I would jabber on here first.. I did start this post last year but, like I said, got sidetracked.. think its sort of appropriate now...

BUNKERS...........

Wanted to be all deep, meaningful and thoughtful and hunted out phrases about or involving sand.... mostly crap or totally irrelevant but some Italian fella was close enough back along...
'The more sand has escaped from the hourglass of our life, the clearer we should see through it.'
Pity he was TOTALLY wrong though when it came to this mad game of little white ball chasing and the many and varied illustrious 'experts' who impose upon it as all I am actually seeing is smoke.... mainly being blown up peoples... ok that's another story.

So what do you think about them? Bunkers? What do you think of them? What is a Bunker? How should a Bunker look? Is there any defined answer? I doubt it like many things in this life it is what works best in the aggregated factors of each track...
What do I think and like? Well... there are many 'types' I hate.... I do love a little gnarly heather edged bunker sitting naturally or a sound manageable swirl of sand,

LIKE 

LIKE ish if you can keep the Wisps

LIKE well I would wouldn't I...

 LIKE

 LIKE Competitors too!

Even LIKE this

It works here in a mad mad way....

LIKE Simple Clean Practical

AND I can see the Sea!

 each Course seems to have its own style, many evolved by time and play rather as much as design although positioning tending to hang for most from the original layouts or amendments... far too many have a bland line or broken backed mess but that's just time and plays effect and need for budget..

 I detest a manicured 'wasteland' or any large expanse of sand for that matter, so unnatural in the majority  of locations.. but then I am just some Brit who hasn't got out much... I hate a crater bunker that looks like someone got an icecream scoop out and just splodged through a crappy lump of soil plonked on the side of a fairway or green... unnatural.. I also HATE unnecessary revetting... especially when there is no sand dunes and no wind... the only exceptions... Downland ..when its the only way to keep out the wind and truly wild courses where the faces are gnarly and heathered, so on odd Heath BUT only when its gnarly and heathered.... The only thing I hate more than unnecessary Revet?... Too steep Revet with not enough 'bowl' .. maybe it's just the pictures throwing the angle of repose and making the sand look flat, all basic stuff that was learnt at you decades ago.
Anything else sort of works for me if it looks like it ought to be there.. so yes a light Revet Edge is OK but stick it up the faces and I start shuddering.... Is this the downside to the Plastic Revolution? A great great idea BUT what if its used in the wrong places.... Hmmmmmm

HATE

HATE

HAAATTE

HATE

BUT I am afraid for in this game of ours, for the sanity of people that have to produce the miracles, make it all look pretty and perfect for the members and punters alike and for the shrinking wallets of the paying customer, the members that have to fund any work as there is this growingly vocal Architectural Puritan Movement that seems to think if a course was built by any of the 'Notables' back along the Bunkers should look exactly as they did in 1926 as that is what a picture says it should look like.. Without ANY thought for the consequences.. or maintenance issues that then creates.
Now this is bad enough on a Heath or inland but take that remit out into a Links and the madness really begins... When was a bare 'Scrape' a good idea near play.... Never.. that gonna haunt some people in a few places....

These 'naturalised areas are all nice.. until the wind blows...........

Then you see why a Links is how it is

NICE but for how long?

Yes I get that The Wars influenced greatly what we all perceive as being 'normal' the limited management to many or even grow in for food production or just as they were left changed many features, here is a great example..

From this to this

 to this in 1940

and in 2003

I respect The Heritage of what The Greats did on some stunning sites and yes I have fantasised and wondered what it would have been like to have been part of that creativity using just shovels or horse drawn drags or later the steam drag boxes to build the plateaus and hollows and smooth just enough Through The Green..

Then when I look at the Bunkers they used to create I then think  jeez those poor guys having to slog the sand up every Friday so it was tidy for the Weekend. Was told once one Surrey classic track used to have 7 Farm Labourers JUST to look after the sand which if you saw the size of the old Bunker areas you would go 'fair enough, look at all that work'

Now they probably have just as much work to do with less bodies AND the rest of the Course to sort out just on a normal day let alone every time there is a heavy rain..

Years back I remember working at Romford GC and there were old grown in Bunkers everywhere 'A Bunker for every day of the Year' it was known as... Must have been absolutely stunning in its day... I wonder even then how many were actually relevant, but stunning all the same, Could that be revived? Taken back to its Glory days.. It would be absolute madness given the cost! So do they 'selective' restore? Well what the Hell's that about? its like taking a 1926 car, doing a perfection restore and sticking 32" Chrome Split Rims on it as the old tyres don't grip so well....
So when DO you restore to? This Puritan utopian, 'Its how Mr C wanted it' view based on a picture....
And there are some floating about now which people seem to coo and aaah over... Yes they look stunning, the open vistas and lack of trees, the rolling and raggedy banks.... Then you start looking beyond and see the wear, the bald or thin bits that you know would implode on you in the first week of wet, which would cope with about 2 weeks of play then just fall over.. Then you start to see the blow outs..
And the best one of all......

This picture was  put out with lots and lots positive comments about how great it was... Talk about Emperors Clothes! Look at it ! LOOK at the sand.... Or should I say look at the rivlets and bald faces of the Bunkers... Imagine the state of the sand, how well it was performing or not after... And I say thats was great BUT... It has to be practical unless you got some serious budget Bunkers NEED to be manageable.

Is this the Puritan answer to Heritage?

So back to Links and Revet... Yes it probably surged down with the influx of the Scottish Keeper of the Greens contingent that swept down along the Links especially, I was told once only a Scotsman could revet properly ... I reckon that's only if they can lay the sod brown side up! (there is a line when diagonally across the Country where the weather means you have to grow grass a bit on a face to get it to stabilise but I digress as normal....) and there are a few instances when it clearly isn't a feature that looks like it ought to be there BUT on the Links or the Downs or anywhere where the wind does a howl then it was the perfect solution to stabilising eroding dunes or keeping the sand in the Bunker.

But REALLY.... C'MON!!.... WTF!! are these?

Then don't start me on Liners.,...

There's plenty of these going on at the mo.... If ya don't properly tuck it it going to bite back!

 And the ol Fried Egg Lie..... When are people going to realise a good Bunker Sand (when it eventually gets contaminated by silts and clays) is shite in a lined Bunker!!

Its's enough to make this happen........

And finally..... Beautifully turf lined and finished Bunkers... Pity someone forgot about a Lip!

Someone got paid for this.... Someone got paid to do this......!

Well... I suppose it is meant to be JUST a Hazard eh....................