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How many bunkers on your most frequented course/s? and whats the most you been in during one round?

26 on my most played course. IMO this doesn't tell you much. One course has sprawing bunkers that go on and on. One greenside bunker may cover three sides of a small green and therefore create quite a challenge. Another hole may have one bunker behind the green and another off to the right of a huge green and rarely will either come into play. I think three is the max. I recall being in the sand on any round say of the last 100 I've played. I actually prefer to be in the bunker rather than tall rough around a green--especially if it's bermuda grass.
 
A local course has 72 waiting to ruin my day. The most I have hit in a single round is 7, 3 of which were on 1 hole.
 
Just counting in my head, I believe we have 42 with 12 being fairway bunkers. Although relatively few, many are quite large and deep and very adept at receiving golf balls.

I’ve no idea as to the most times I’ve found sand in a round there, but I’d have to think it would be at least 6 or 7 times.
 
3 on my home course and it is common for me to go the entire season without being in one of them.
 
I don't know how many are on the course. I think there are 32. I've found 8 of them during a single round. And the way they're maintained I'd rather they removed 50% of them and put the money into green maintenance. Don't get me wrong, the greens are nice. It's just that bunkers are one of the most expensive parts of the course to maintain and they do a very poor job of maintaining them. I hate landing in them. They're fine in the spring when they've just added sand, but during the summer they have a dusting of about 1/2" of dry silty sand over a very hard base and if you don't know this and play them like a regular bunker shot like you see on Youtube you'll end up watching your club bounce off the firm layer and skull the ball over the green into the bunker on the other side. The way to play these is to have a specialty wedge and hit them straight on.
 
I think there are 61 at Torrey Pines North. I do my best to stay out of the greenside bunkers as that's one of the weakest parts of my game.
 
jvbart said:
I think there are 61 at Torrey Pines North. I do my best to stay out of the greenside bunkers as that's one of the weakest parts of my game.
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Might be a rhetorical question but how does one do their best to stay out of greenside bunker's? I mean dont we usually try to hit the greens and unfortunately just often enough end up in them? I mean I too will try to aim for safer part of green (including bunker placement in that equation .decision) depending on approach yardage. But hey if i was that good and consistent Id hit alot more greens and not be in as many bunkers and fwiw be closer to 10 or better cap vs mid teens . lol just sayin
 
rollin said:
Might be a rhetorical question but how does one do their best to stay out of greenside bunker's? I mean dont we usually try to hit the greens and unfortunately just often enough end up in them? I mean I too will try to aim for safer part of green (including bunker placement in that equation .decision) depending on approach yardage. But hey if i was that good and consistent Id hit alot more greens and not be in as many bunkers and fwiw be closer to 10 or better cap vs mid teens . lol just sayin
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I guess there is not a ton you can do at my level, I definitely aim away from bunkers when I can and avoid tough pin locations if they are tucked by a bunker. Other than that I really just hope to stay out of them.
 
Turtlerancher said:
If you want to know how many bunkers are at your course, just invite @Hamfist , he will find them! 😉🤣
To be fair, I did bring him to a course with 127 bunkers.😎
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And I found damn near every one! Lol.
 
My home course averages 10.5 bunkers per nine if my memory serves correctly. With the exception of two holes out of 27 the bunkers are not in play. In fact they don't even add any visual value to the holes.

On the flip side I've played courses that have 3 or 4 per hole. I can't remember where, but during a round earlier this year I was in a bunker on each of the first 13 holes. Not really the stat you want to keep LOL.
 
I haven't counted but I think about half the fairways have bunkers. A couple have 3 bunkers in the fairway. Number 18 is a short 340 yard hole with two bunkers around 210-220 depending on where they put the tee box. There's only about 15 yards between them. If you hit long enough to clear them there's a 3rd bunker on the left side around 250. Some guys just hit a long iron or fairway wood to leave it short of them and have a 7 or 8 iron to the green. Every hole has two greenside bunkers. A few have a narrow gap between them in the front so leaving it short ends up in them unless its real straight.
 
22 bunkers. I was probably in 4 or 5 of them, yesterday. I'm not a great bunker player by any means but I can get the ball out and on the green. It might not be close to the hole but I can get it out. I've never holed out a bunker shot, however. I really should practice from the bunker.
 
I wonder if classic golf courses had a "template" number of bunkers. A 9 hole course nearby by Wayne Styles has exactly 20 bunkers. Another Donald Ross course has 20 on each 9. Looks like some number around 40 is fairly common. In Golf by Design by RTJ Jr, he mentions the addition of penal bunkers and many extraneous bunkers on courses built between 1970-2000.
 
I feel when fw bunkers come into play it is a sign that your likely playing the correct (more or less) yardage tees. I find very many hardly ever hit a fw bunker cause even their good shots dont reach them too often (at my courses) .

On my county courses from my tees I will find fw bunkers with a number shots that are (not very poor but) simply less than good. Good shots will carry most of them by a little even if I hit towards one , or if in fairway I of course will be not in but past them as well (but thats a good shot and not a less than good shot). . That to me is a sign Im on correct tees for my capable distance. If I dont reach one or carry them its usually because my shot was worse than "less than good" and on the poorer side of things.

If I move back to the blues (which are 7000-ish and i dont normally play much at all) I wont find many fw bunkers unless I really blast a couple longer than normal shots (and a bit off line) shots. I think that same scenario plays into why many folks wont reach many fwb's from the white tees (at my courses).
they should be up one more set imo. (and no I dont care at all that they arent,.....Im just making the point as to why many folks are not in many the fw bunkers.
Then it becomes a matter of their second shot hit very poorly (perhaps chunk one or etc) only then maybe finding chunked one into the bunker. lol
 
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Cruskater said:
I wonder if classic golf courses had a "template" number of bunkers. A 9 hole course nearby by Wayne Styles has exactly 20 bunkers. Another Donald Ross course has 20 on each 9. Looks like some number around 40 is fairly common. In Golf by Design by RTJ Jr, he mentions the addition of penal bunkers and many extraneous bunkers on courses built between 1970-2000.
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I have studied a lot of golf history and have not come across any such evidence of a template or magic number of bunkers. On the contrary, historically golf courses didn't have the ability to move large amounts of earth to create the contours and effects golf architects might want. Earlier courses had to be built largely working with what was there. Thus the selection of land for a course was of critical importance. Architects used natural features to shape and defend their courses. Thus in the many wooded regions in the United States course used trees much more as a natural defense. In many places it was the removal of trees that shaped a course. Tree lined dogleg shaped holes provided a natural defense. Similarly, natural ponds, lakes, and streams provided major features of the course. An ocean course might have lots of sand defending the course because, well it's already there. Where bunkers were installed, they tended to be around the greens where they were already putting in significant manual labor to build the greens or at a few very strategic locations such as on the inside of a dogleg so that a forced carry had additional risk involved.

Up until recently there were still a few golf course architects who favored and were known for working with the land as it existed. Brad Benz comes to mind whom I knew for about 20 years when he operated out of San Jose, CA. But as you would expect, most architects now take advantage of modern earth moving equipment--at least to the degree the budget allows.

An interesting related story involves the legendary 17th hole at the Pete Dye designed TPC Sawgrass built in 1982. The location of the 17th hole was an excavation site where soil was removed to contour other parts of the course. Alice Dye, Pete's wife, tells the story of Pete struggling with what they were going to do with the monstrous hole they created. It was Alice that first suggested the idea of an island green. The rest is history!
 
16. There is however a load of sand if you miss the fairway on around half of the holes on the back 9. It’s not a hazard, but if you go into the sand there you are lucky to get it 30 yards down the fairway. It’s penal!
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I knew it would be bad luck responding to this thread last week. I managed to get in 4 of the 42 bunkers on my home course today. Haha.
 
Mark_UK said:
16. There is however a load of sand if you miss the fairway on around half of the holes on the back 9. It’s not a hazard, but if you go into the sand there you are lucky to get it 30 yards down the fairway. It’s penal!
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I know this course well having played it many times. Planning on playing it in early October with my wife. Mark is showing the back 9. The front 9 is very different. Kind of a narrow parkland style. Pacific Grove has the nickname of "The Poor Man's Pebble Beach".

This is a great example of the fact that the number of bunkers doesn't tell you much. Several of these holes on the back 9 don't have rough. When you are off the fairway, you are in the sand dunes, and as Mark said it is extremely difficult to advance the ball from in there. Believe it or not, it used to be worse. The sand on this course used to be full of ice plant resulting in an unplayable lie almost every time (if you could find your ball). They removed the ice plant 10-15 years ago.
 
There’s a lot
I have had a few days when I’ve been in a lot.
 
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