Architecture Glossary - Carrying Bunker

The message of great, strategic golf course architecture is clear. The actual words used to describe those golf courses, however, are many. The Architecture Glossary column will examine more precise terms and concepts that one will find when exploring golf course architecture. Hopefully understanding these terms, and why certain architects employed them, will help you to better understand the golf courses you play…and maybe even improve your scores!

Today’s term is ‘Carrying Bunker’.

No hazard in golf is more prevalent or varied in purpose than the bunker. Many bunkers are placed strategically near to areas of fairway and greens in order to reward the player who executes upon the riskiest shots. Others divide holes into multiple routes for players to navigate, and some serve primarily as frames for the hole.

Some simply force the player to make an aerial shot, with no ground option, in order to advance play. These common hazards are known as carrying bunkers.

These bunkers can come in an array of sizes. One of the world’s most famous examples is No. 7 at Pine Valley Golf Club, better known as “Hell’s Half Acre.” This intimidating par five features no less than three carry bunkers.

From the tee, players see an enormous carry bunker to the first fairway, and an even more enormous carry bunker sits in the background. (Photo Credit: David Davis)

First, players must carry an opening salvo of sand just to reach the fairway. Then, they must cross the hole’s title hazard in order to reach the next stretch of fairway. Lest you get comfortable, one more short stretch of sand sits ahead of the green.

Not all carry bunkers are as firm in their purpose as those at Hell’s Half Acre, however. Consider the tee shot from No. 7 at Ballyneal Golf and Hunt Club. Here, the identification of the hole’s core hazard changes depending on the player’s move.

Just 350 yards from the back tees, the sandy terrain of eastern Colorado makes a go at the green plausible. The only thing standing in the way is a sand gash cut by Tom Doak into the fairway along the left side.

The prominent fairway bunker at Ballyneal No. 7 operates as a carry bunker for the bold, who seek to get this green in one shot. (Photo Credit: Ballyneal Golf and Hunt Club)

This bunker is angled from left to right, requiring a lengthier shot depending on how ideal an angle toward the putting surface the player desires. If you choose to lay up to the inside or play well right of the hazard, it operates as a more standard bunker. It only becomes a “carrying bunker” for those who want to go for the green in one. Take flight for an eagle opportunity, or land in the hazard for a likely bogey on a must-par hole.

Short par fours make great homes for the world’s most strategic carrying bunkers.

The acclaimed No. 10 at Riviera Country Club has multiple instances. The foremost hazard here, and largest bunker on the course, always operates as a carrying bunker, although is rarely any concern when the PGA comes to town. These alpha golfers have more trouble with the final fairway bunker, however, which catches many a stray tee shot that is attempting to find the front area of the green. That bunker becomes a carrying bunker for more modest handicappers, who can set up an ideal approach into the green by playing their tee shot to the left side of the fairway. There’s very little room for bump-and-run with the course’s current kikuyu turf, but during George Thomas’s day, a player might have opted for the ground game…if this bunker didn’t force them to do otherwise.

Depending on your choice from the tee, you'll likely eventually need to carry a bunker at Riviera's famous No. 10 par four. (Photo Credit: Gary Lisbon)

Carrying bunkers work best when forcing players to make a risk-reward assessment regarding distance. For example, a shorter par five hole might place carry bunkers early across the fairway, in order to convince the risk averse to lay up. The more aggressive might try to fly these bunkers and earn a relatively short approach.

An example similar to that at Pine Valley is No. 7 at Plainfield Country Club. The course’s number-one handicap, this 470-yard par four asks those who have made the fairway whether they have enough muscle to cross the pair of carrying bunkers that sit perhaps 30 yards short of the putting surface. Laying up is not necessarily a bad move on this par four-and-a-half.

There is a more controversial use for carrying bunkers that also shows its face on this hole. Donald Ross designed Plainfield as one of his more stiff championship challenges, and he was in no mood to suffer the weak. Another pair of bunkers sits just short of where the fairway begins, ahead of all but the most forward tee box. These hazards are an afterthought for skilled players, but a nightmare for the duffer: A topped tee shot would have resulted in a lengthy trip to the green anyhow, but now it also featured a blast out of the sand.

A tree off the left of the fairway means that anyone aiming to reach Plainfield's No. 7 green in two shots will need to treat these hazards as carry bunkers. (Photo Credit: Plainfield Country Club)

Debate over this form of bunker raged even during the Golden Age, splitting the opinions of respected architects. Some believed that, should he or she choose, a golfer should be able to navigate all the way from the tee to the green using a putter (they wouldn’t be likely to win a match point that way, so what’s the harm?). Others found that idea too patronizing, and welcomed these gateway gulches as filters to mark lesser talent.

The latter mindset became more prevalent as golf course design entered the era of “penal” architecture. Carrying bunkers — especially from the tee box — became more prevalent, if they remained sand at all. In many instances, sizable ponds came to be expected where Ross might have placed a trench bunker. In some instances, classic Golden Age designs have been adapted to make them more “adventurous,” which is often synonymous with “difficult.”

Consider Bethpage Black, a course whose popular late ‘90s renovation involved removing nearly 25 acres of fairway from Tillinghast’s original design. No. 5 currently features a lengthy drive, where players must travers an enormous carry bunker in order to reach the fairway. Strangely, the widest fairway area requires more carry to reach than the tight corridor that runs ahead of it. Reaching this “safe” fairway requires at least 210 yards in the air, or else the park’s notorious sand and rough will factor into the next shot.

The fairway at Bethpage Black's No. 5 hole has been shrunk so that the enormous Sahara bunker is now guaranteed to be a carry bunker, requiring 210 yards from the middle tees to reach the safe zone. (Photo Credit: P.J. Koenig)

If one looks at the original mow lines from historic aerials, they’ll see that there was once a wide landing area on the short side of No. 5’s sizable bunker. Nervous players would have zero chance at the green from this landing, but they also had the option to treat the bunker as a strategic hazard, rather than a do-or-die proposition.

There is plenty of opportunity for carrying bunkers, whether to provide strategic consideration or, in temperance, to generate a sense of adventure and get the blood flowing. Course architects would be wise, however, not to get too carried away with carrying bunkers.