Bunkers are hazards

 Most of the comments I've heard the past month about our course concern bunkers and their condition. Many comments about balls plugging when the sand is dry, balls getting stuck on the faces of bunkers because there is too much sand on them, time to replace our white sand with the tan variety because it is much more "consistent," etc. I went to Bandon Dunes last week with a group of members from Glendale CC and got a 3 round reminder that bunkers are hazards. They are not fair, the ball plugs, the ball gets stuck wherever it lands, there are rocks everywhere, sometimes you can't hit the ball the direction you want because there are steep banks that get in the way, sometimes you have to take a penalty for an unplayable lie, and there is gorst waiting to poke you if you're not careful!

This bunker is just in front of the 1st green at Old Macdonald. If you hit it close to the face, you'll be taking a penalty and moving back to get a swing at it. And when you take your drop, yes, it will plug.

Clint hit a shot into this bunker at Pacific Dunes and it plugged deep in the sand. Most of them did. Notice the rake job by the last guy that was in there. He probably wasn't very happy with the shot he had to play- too much sand, plugged lie?

Here I am in a bunker on the 14th hole at Pacific Dunes. It's a short par 3 and I pulled my tee shot left into the sand. The ball ended up too close to the edge to take a swing and hit it toward the hole. I sat on the
bank and hit it at the back of the green. Not where I wanted to go, but I got it out on the first try. I hit a bad tee shot into a hazard, my fault.

Kevin Suther hit it into this fairway bunker at Pacific Dunes. Rocks, steep slopes, and no sand are all conditions present here.

Kevin plays his third shot from this bunker on the 18th fairway at Pacific.

He also hit his fourth shot from the same bunker!

My favorite bunker I saw on the trip at Pacific Dunes. Gorst, weeds, and rocks. Now this is a hazard. If you hit a shot into this bunker, good luck.

Sometimes we forget that bunkers are hazards and the conditions in them may not be what we want. Just remember, you hit a bad shot to get there and sometimes you have to pay your dues.

High water on Sept 6 shows possible design flaws

We had a .65 inch rain event on Thursday night 9/5 and the photos below were taken on Friday 9/6. The newly constructed areas of the stream had some damage, but it's hard to say if it was due to the design or not.

This view is from the bridge next to #16 tee looking north toward the 16th fairway. During a big rain event, the stream always goes over it's banks through this area. The water will flow down the cart path next to the 17th green and re-enter the stream on the down side of the bridge going to the 11th hole.

The high flow of water re-entering the stream cut this chunk of bank away adjacent to the bridge on #11. I'm not sure how this could be prevented since it happens every time we get high flows.

This photo shows the bank next to #8 tee. This is a design flaw that has to be corrected. The root wads and tree stumps in the stream directed the flow around them toward the bank and caused this erosion. Design engineers were on site later that day to access the situation and determined that one of the larger stumps had to be removed. The bottom photo shows the stump removal. The bank work will have to take place next year since the in-stream work window has closed for this year according to the project permit issued by the WA State Dept. of Fish and Wildlife.