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 ‘Guidance Bunker’.
The idea of aiming at a bunker seems ironic, the hazardous nature of these items and all, however it’s not a strange idea for those with any sense of strategic golf course architecture. We have been trained from the very beginning to understand that hazards are placed by the designers of golf courses with purpose, and that purpose is to defend the best routes toward a score. Bunkers around the green often conspire to only allow access from ideal approach angles, and these approach angles themselves can only be accessed by challenging a hazard from the tee.
In short, it seems that many fairway bunkers are targets for the skilled player, dictating a strategic route to the hole. These fairway hazards, even if they guide the player, can also wreck the scorecard. After all, risk-and-reward logic requires the possibility that a ball ends up in the hazard.
The “guidance bunkers” that we’re discussing today differ from their strategic kin in one major way: They are placed to benefit the player, without the duality of risk.
This concept stirs up controversy in an era focused on strategy. Why offer a “hazard” that doesn’t provide actual hazard to the player, but only benefits? Especially when maintenance hours will be required to maintain it? Complicating these matters is that “guidance bunkers” are not limited to amateur architects. Some of the world’s most acclaimed designers may have utilized beneficial bunkers (but they rarely seem to mention it, perhaps realizing the controversy in the practice).
One example of such a guidance bunker is specifically known as a “target bunker,” where a player can use the hazard as an aiming point during a hole where a clear target is not obvious. These bunkers differentiate from their more strategic kin in that they cannot be reached from the tea.
The "Principal's Nose" feature at Yeamans Hall's Double Plateau hole is significantly far from both the putting surface and the tee. Could Seth Raynor have intended it as a target bunker? (Photo Credit: Patrick Koenig)
Consider the opening hole at Seth Raynor’s Yeamans Hall Club, for example. This hole subscribes to Raynor’s “Double Plateau” template, a concept that frequently featured a “principal’s nose” bunker a short distance ahead of the green, to prevent players from being too liberal with their ground game approach. This bunker sits a full 75 yards from the front at the green (compared to 50 yards at National Golf Links of America). This is also among the largest examples of the “principal’s nose” that Raynor constructed. Why? As with all good strategic architecture, playing backwards may provide an answer.
The bunker sits nearly 340 yards from the back tee; hardly in play for most scratch golfers. This tee shot is also uphill. It doesn’t necessarily provide a perfect approach into the green — the land ahead of the putting surface is topsy-turvy — but it does offer a full-fronted look into the green from this spot. It seems as if this sizable, distant bunker serves as an ideal target from the tee, especially for those considering where on Yeamans’s massive first fairway they should take aim.
Strategy isn’t the only trend in modern golf courses, however; playability for higher handicappers also offers an opportunity for more nuanced use of target bunkers, albeit in a different sense.
The green at Erin Hills' second hole is hidden from the tee, especially for players at the forward tee box. The bunkers on the front face of this hillock, however, provide the line toward the green for those higher handicappers. (Photo: Erin Hills Golf Course)
No. 2 at Erin Hills Golf Course displays some flexibility, where a bunker that is truly strategic in some cases can also be a guidance bunker in others. Those playing from most tees will be challenged to skirt the trio of bunkers that pinch the fairway from the left (275 yards out from the back tee). Those who succeed will get an additional kick downhill toward a green that is blind from the box.
Less-skilled players, however, can play from front tees, which are located ahead and to the right of the other tee boxes. In this case the bunker provides a target for where the green is located, so players can play straightaway over the hazard (just a 135-yard carry from that point).
Granted, yes, a nervous player could hit a bad shot and end up in this beneficial bunker, but we would argue that its placement was always intended for guidance, and not punishment. “The best-laid plans of mice and men.”
Severe, level doglegs such as the opening hole at Radnor Country Club make it a struggle to differentiate where the fairway ends at the end of the drive. Dick Wilson's first few bunkers on the course are much friendlier than the rest, indicating exactly how far is too far.
A similar example of such guidance exists at Radnor Country Club. Dick Wilson opened this Philadelphia-area course with a sharp left-to-right dogleg. Players looking out from the tee box will see a pair of bunkers at the end of the fairway before it breaks right.
Are these penal for players who take too much club from the tee? Yes, but again, their placement is more likely for the player’s benefit rather than penalty. If they weren’t there, it would be difficult for players to gauge where the fairway ends and the rough begins. These bunkers behave like warning lights, directing players to stay back.
North Berwick is home to many quirky holes, however the blind shot at No. 14 "Perfection" is to be expected from such iconic linksland. Avoid the bunkers from the tee, and they'll give you a helpful tip on where to send your second shot. (Photo credit: North Berwick Golf Club)
Guidance bunkers are most prevalent at courses where terrain prevents players from viewing the green, and therefore you can count on them among the links. Links clubs have used a number of methods to guide blind shots, ranging from the white rocks of Lahinch Golf Club to the poles of Royal County Down. North Berwick features such a pole for its second shot at No. 14, the famous “Perfection.”
Prior to the existence of this pole, however, the hole’s only guide to the green was its twin bunkers. Sure, they’re strategic in that hugging the ridge too closely with your green will end in trouble. That said, unless you plan on playing a 300-yard drive to the second fairway, you’ll want to use these two bunkers to frame your blind approach shot. Land your tee shot between them, and use the gap to direct the line of the next knock.
If a guidance bunker does nothing but that, providing guidance, without offering a proper hazard, can it be considered worthwhile as strategic architecture? That’s an argument that will, and should, continue into your reviews. For now, take advantage of the free tips from the architect!
