PGA: PGA Tour, Nicklaus Experiment with Furrowed Bunkers at Memorial

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By Erik J. Barzeski via TheSandTrap.com

Brows are furrowed over "Jack's New Rake" at Muirfield Village. Furrowed bunkers have returned to the PGA Tour, at least as a one-week trial.

I've long argued for making bunkers on the PGA Tour penal. Too many good golfers, particularly on par fives, aim for bunkers and prefer a lie on the beach than any in greenside rough.



That may all change soon if the PGA Tour's experiment this week at Muirfield Village during The Memorial Tournament proves successful. The Tour is trying out a new rake that gently furrows bunkers this year, and the early feedback is that it's working.



The PGA Tour has, to this point, only talked about acting on their threat to do something about the bunkers, but in place of fine-toothed rakes, contestants (and their caddies) will find widely spaced and long-toothed rakes made of wood. The result: less consistent lies and tougher shots.


This leaf measures over two inches in width (I let the wind carry it into the bunker after measuring it) - larger than a golf ball. You can see how a golf ball could easily settle between the furrows.



The Columbus Dispatch reported that Jack Nicklaus said during a practice round on Sunday that "bunkers were meant to be a penalty, and they haven't been for quite a while."




"Jack's New Rake," as players are calling it, is a heavy wood rake with long, widely spaced tines that create deep furrows. Hitting a bunker once again exacts a penalty and demands solid shotmaking to escape with par!



To this point, the only PGA Tour course to severely furrow bunkers (or have a reputation for doing so) is Oakmont, the U.S. Open course outside of Pittsburgh, PA. Nicklaus, who designed and built his version of Augusta National in the sleepy Columbus suburb of Dublin, OH, said that he has been thinking about furrowing the bunkers for awhile now in order to protect the course against technological advances. When he asked Tour officials what they thought of the idea, he discovered that they were considering the same thing. Nicklaus was given the OK to furrow away at this year's Memorial.




The bunker furrows are nearly half a ball deep. I watched several players hit out of these bunkers, and the difficulty in controlling both spin and distance was evident.



Said Tour official Frank Kavanaugh:

The players wear us out (complaining) about the conditions of the bunkers, that they aren't perfect. We've gotten to the point where they expect a perfect lie every time. We've got to change their attitude. There's no more smooth ice. They're on rough ice now.

For The Memorial, the furrowing is a return to the tournament's and Tour's roots. In the 1970s - including the Memorial's first few years beginning in 1976 - bunkers were regularly furrowed.




Though this image shows a greenside bunker, even fairway bunkers are raked with the furrowed rake, making them incredibly penalizing.



Nicklaus predicts that good bunker players will appreciate the bunkers, saying "The guys that are good bunker players will like it more. The guys who aren't as good won't like it as much."



Though not the biggest Nicklaus fan in the world, and though I reside firmly on the opposite side of the fence as "the game is in ruins" folks, I applaud this effort.



The Rake
The rake, as seen above, is a wooden rake. It appears to be a standard rake retrofitted with longer tines and with every other tine shaved off. As you'll see in the first image below, the rake is "lopsided" in this configuration, though I have no doubt the caddies can manage.




The rake tines measure two inches and are approximately ¼ inch long. They are about two inches apart.



The real question is how the players will manage. Edoardo Molinari, Brett Wetterich, Jeff Brehaut, and others were all seen having quite a difficult time hitting out of the bunkers, particularly from fairway bunkers. Not only are the furrows deep enough to hide the bottom quarter of the ball, they're raked perpendicular to the line of play to all but ensure problems.




The rake on the practice range is the same as on the course. These furrows will widen the gap between the good bunker players and the lesser artists.



Controlling both spin and distance were difficult from these bunkers. Several of the players were seen using larger than normal swings to escape the bunkers. Once the ball hit the green, it had very little spin. Only Edoardo Molinari was able to sufficiently spin a ball to stop it dead in its tracks, and only he could manage it after rolling a ball into position, likely creating a nicer lie than he'd have otherwise been afforded.



Photo Credits: © 2006, Erik J. Barzeski, The Sand Trap .com. All rights reserved.

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[lidomkj]

I think this is a great idea! Obviously, this will make the game tougher for the average Joe if their local course takes this approach.

 

Bunkers are supposed to be a challenge, not a target. My personal belief is that the pro level game should reward accuracy over distance.

 

But as with all things, pros will adapt and find a way around this challenge.

[Golf_Beauty]

It's about time, IMHO. Bunkers are supposed to be a penalty, not a strategic advantage. If I remember correctly weren't they going to make the bunker sand a more finer grain? The players like the thicker sand because it bodes well for their game...?

 

Either way, I like the idea of making the bunker shots more difficult.

[nlacross]

It all comes down to one simple thing!! Until the day where we see PGA players having a difficult time getting to 4 or 5 under in every tournament they play, nothing is too difficult for them.

 

If I had it my way every course they play would have 4 to 5 inch rough and the greens would be rolling at a solid 13 or higher. If that took place, you wouldn't see Tiger #1 for much longer. You should have to be able to hit fairways which he doesn't do. Good example of that is the Ford, Tiger hacked his drives all over that course and sailed to victory due to no rough. We need stuff like Jacks bunker rakes to keep these guys in check and maybe open the fields up for new winners.

[mumf91]

Tiger would hit it straight if he had to, events like doral with thin bermuda rough play into the hands of the bomb and gouge mentally. If the tour changed all its conditions to US open style stuff Tiger would start to straighten it out but because there is little priotity placed on arcuraccy on the PGA tour he doesn't feel that acuraccy is off utmost importance.

[nlacross]

Tiger would hit it straight if he had to, events like doral with thin bermuda rough play into the hands of the bomb and gouge mentally. If the tour changed all its conditions to US open style stuff Tiger would start to straighten it out but because there is little priotity placed on arcuraccy on the PGA tour he doesn't feel that acuraccy is off utmost importance.

 

 

If that is the case then how come he smacks his driver on the ground and yells out "TIGER" every time he misses a fairway? Obviously he is trying to hit some fairways!!

[nlacross]

I have a feeling that the pros are going to kill Winged Foot. The USGA has already announced that they are going to cut back the rough from short on the edge of the fairway to real long way off the fairway. Now what is this crap? If you miss a fairway you should be in the rough no matter how far you spray the ball. I want to see how players handle pressure knowing if they miss the fairway there not going to be able to advance their 2nd shot more than 60 yards. I want to see them 3 putt greens due to slick and tricky slopes. So many tournaments in a year we see the pros shoot lights out on easy courses. This is the U.S. Open, lets see the players work for their score and if they struggle, well then have a nice drive home. Let the players who hit the fairways and greens be the last ones standing. I get a laugh out of these newscasters that predict the score to be around even par every single year for the U.S. Open no matter what course it is at. Players were under par on Shinnecock and that place was a joke. The USGA is going to really have to step it up if were ever going to see another U.S. Open where even is the winning score.

[Golfchicago]

Couldn't agree more. On some courses it is advantageous to hit it inn the bunker on specific holes and some shots are too easy for pros. I love the change.

[nlacross]

I have a feeling that the pros are going to kill Winged Foot. The USGA has already announced that they are going to cut back the rough from short on the edge of the fairway to real long way off the fairway. Now what is this crap? If you miss a fairway you should be in the rough no matter how far you spray the ball. I want to see how players handle pressure knowing if they miss the fairway there not going to be able to advance their 2nd shot more than 60 yards. I want to see them 3 putt greens due to slick and tricky slopes. So many tournaments in a year we see the pros shoot lights out on easy courses. This is the U.S. Open, lets see the players work for their score and if they struggle, well then have a nice drive home. Let the players who hit the fairways and greens be the last ones standing. I get a laugh out of these newscasters that predict the score to be around even par every single year for the U.S. Open no matter what course it is at. Players were under par on Shinnecock and that place was a joke. The USGA is going to really have to step it up if were ever going to see another U.S. Open where even is the winning score.

I highly doubt they are going to kill Winged Foot. Hale Irwin's 287 (+7) was the winning score the last time Winged Foot hosted the open, and there were only 8 sub par rounds for the entire tournament. Irwin commented that he won the tournament by aiming at bunkers becuse it was the best chance you had to make a par. Even par won the US Open last year, and on paper at least Winged Foot has the potential to be a sterner test than No.2.

 

Nicklaus rated Winged foot's difficulty "an eleven" out of ten, while giving 8s and 9s to most other reputedly difficult courses. "you have 6 tough holes, 6 unbelievably tough holes, and 6 impossible holes." was Nicklaus's assessment. With the amount of rain in the area this year even 1.5" rough will be brutally thick, 3-4" rough will be a hack at best, and 6" will be impossible. Anything in the red will be near the top of the leaderboard.

 

I don't think we can really compare Hale Irwin's win back then to the caliber of players now. If you put Hale Irwin and his opponents on Pinehurst last year I am sure way over par would have been winning score also. Players are much more better, stronger, and technology is greater to make them defeat courses a lot easier than back then. My score prediction for the winner this year at Winged Foot I say will be 7 under.

[tei3rn]

I would love for the pros to have to play out of the bunkers that we have on our course. They're hardly ever raked. You never know if it's sand or mud. Or you've got the deer tracks to contend with. IT'S A FREAKIN' HAZARD...deal with it.

 

One other thing...stop having the spotters find their tee shot when it lands in the rough. The pro should have to find his own ball...if he can't find it, lost ball, go back and hit another. I remember Tiger in the Open a few years ago, get pissed because a marshal didn't see where his ball landed in the rough.

[sergizmo]

I would love for the pros to have to play out of the bunkers that we have on our course. They're hardly ever raked. You never know if it's sand or mud. Or you've got the deer tracks to contend with. IT'S A FREAKIN' HAZARD...deal with it.

 

One other thing...stop having the spotters find their tee shot when it lands in the rough. The pro should have to find his own ball...if he can't find it, lost ball, go back and hit another. I remember Tiger in the Open a few years ago, get pissed because a marshal didn't see where his ball landed in the rough.

 

Agreed. Playing conditions for pros are manicured beyond belief. Ultra-tight fairways that allow drives to roll out 40 yards, super-true and consistent greens, fluffy sand that is smooth as glass, rough trampled down by spectators, marshalls and spotters to find balls and virtually no-where on the course where a shot can't be played from.

 

When a PGA player hits into the trees they almost always have a shot back into the fairway and often at the green. When we play at our local courses, if a ball goes into the woods 90% of the time it's a provisional.

 

That's one of the reasons the British is so enjoyable to watch, there is a chance a player will actually lose a ball or not have a shot due to a high lipped bunker.

 

Kudos to Jack for having some sack and sticking to his guns.

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I highly doubt they are going to kill Winged Foot. Hale Irwin's 287 (+7) was the winning score the last time Winged Foot hosted the open, and there were only 8 sub par rounds for the entire tournament.

Why does everyone forget Fuzzy?

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I highly doubt they are going to kill Winged Foot. Hale Irwin's 287 (+7) was the winning score the last time Winged Foot hosted the open, and there were only 8 sub par rounds for the entire tournament.

Why does everyone forget Fuzzy?

What happened to Fuzzy?

He won the 1984 U.S. Open at Winged Foot at -4.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/U.S._Open_%28golf%29#Winners

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Oh, that. He got lucky. :friends:

Still makes you wrong about the last time Winged Foot hosted a U.S. Open.