Bunkers _ Remove the sand

[Slab]

Take the sand out, fill 'em with water :whoo:

Gawd no, played on Sunday at a course with water hazards on 17 of 18 holes & I found most of them

 

[delc]

Assuming we're not talking about links courses

Lots complain about the state of their bunkers whether it's not being raked, footprints, stones, poor quality sand, not enough sand, compacted sand etc etc

Would you be happy if your club emptied them all and grassed them? (so leaving all bunkers in place as structures but they all revert to being grass bunkers with grass length similar to first cut)

So happy or not?

& what impact would it have on:

Playability of the course
Pace
Enjoyment of the round
Scoring

Several courses I have played at have started to do this for their less frequently visited bunkers. Reduces maintenance costs apparently, as sand bunkers require daily attention and occasional refills of sand (at parkland courses anyway).

 

[Foliage Finder]

I'd be against replacing with grass. The sand adds another layer of difficulty onto the other features of a bunker hazard that I think would detract from the enjoyability aspect that the OP was asking about.

I think scoring would improve slightly, and pace would slightly increase, two features linked to what I would perceive as the playability of the course becoming easier. My local par 3 course has grass bunkers now, I think due to the maintenance costs etc. I find the bunkers little more than a shot out of the first rough with a slight hump in the way, but the bunkers certainly weren't testing in the first place. Not the best comparison due to that but given the frequency that players (myself certainly) play rough shots, they tend to go better than sand shots overall.

Loss of sand would be loss of this added skill required to be a complete golfer and I think would make the game less of a challenge, and therefore less enjoyable (for me anyway).