Page 10 - GreenMaster Winter 2025

u COVER STORY u JEFF STANDON & ROBBIE MOORE, ASSISTANT SUPERINTENDENTS,
CARNMONEY GOLF CLUB, AB
Rethinking Hazards
Layering the synthetic turf bricks on the front right bunker on #5 during construction.
Every golf course superintendent, or assistant
superintendent, has heard the familiar refrains
from members and guests:
• “There’s no sand in the bunkers.”
• “The bunkers are too firm.”
• “We get too many fried eggs in the bunkers.”
• “The bunkers are inconsistent.”
• “The bunkers aren’t fair.”
For turf professionals, these comments are
so common they’ve become clichés. Yet they
highlight a fundamental paradox: golfers often
expect perfection from the very features that
are, by definition, designed to penalize.
THE PURPOSE OF BUNKERS
It’s worth reminding ourselves of golf’s foundations. Wikipedia
defines the game as “a sport in which players use various clubs to
hit a ball into a series of holes on a course in as few strokes as
possible. Golf does not use a standardized playing area and coping
with the varied terrains encountered is a key part of the game.”
Notice what is absent: consistency and fairness. The only true
standard in golf is the 4.5-inch hole. Golf is not played on a uniform
surface; it is played across landscapes of challenge, unpredictability,
and nuance.
By this definition, bunkers are hazards, not amenities. Yet
modern maintenance practices and golfer expectations often
treat them as nearly equal to fairways and greens in their need for
uniformity.
10
• CGSA • GreenMaster