Fairway bunkers in the rough, should they be there?

[Slab]

Not just courses I've played but whenever I look at courses that forum members mention in posts and check out the course gallery or google, I see a so many holes where fairway bunkers are situated completely in the rough (maybe first cut but certainly not fairway)

What’s this about?

If I’m wayward off the tee that I miss landing on the fairway & go into the rough then surely that’s my penalty, why stick a second obstacle inside the first? (one that often gives a better lie than the rough itself)

Were courses designed with that in mind or have clubs become accustomed to thinning the width of the fairway when cutting

We know the rough (even the first cut) can mean anything including a lost ball or a chip out etc so what’s the bunker doing there and why isn’t it on the fairway so that it becomes a hazard in its own right to be laid up to or carried?

 

[Hobbit]

If you land in the bunker, you're not in the rough and vice versa. And if you're in the rough, should you really be aiming at/over a bunker bearing in mind you're not coming off the best of lies?

 

[Fish]

I would say if you looked at all bunker positions they are, the majority of the time, off the fairway.

A fairway bunker is exactly that, a fairway bunker/hazard to make you think more about distance, position and in-turn, club selection, it will have fairway cut all around it. A "normal" bunker is off the fairway to the side and encroaches on to the fairway but with no fairway cut around it to penalise any wayward shots, its not "in the rough" so to speak.

We only have 5 I think that encroach on to the actual fairway but they do not have fairway cut all around them, all the others are green side.

 

[Colin L]

Slab,
I think you have maybe invented the expression "fairway bunker" and what that is supposed to mean. As a result you have created an over hopeful expectation of where bunkers might be located and what the ground around them might be like.

 

[Slab]

Slab,
I think you have maybe invented the expression "fairway bunker" and what that is supposed to mean. As a result you have created an over hopeful expectation of where bunkers might be located and what the ground around them might be like.

lol
Ok patent pending, no one else can use the term fairway bunker without paying the appropriate royalties

Although to be clear my reasoning for a better bunker placement (i.e my patented fairway bunker) is to make the course tougher by creating more hazards through the green rather than having two hazards (not the R&A definition) in the same place

 

[Bomber69]

lol
Ok patent pending, no one else can use the term fairway bunker without paying the appropriate royalties

Although to be clear my reasoning for a better bunker placement (i.e my patented fairway bunker) is to make the course tougher by creating more hazards through the green rather than having two hazards (not the R&A definition) in the same place

Being in the rough is not often a hazard, but if your talking about knee high rough then I for one would be glad to land in the bunker rather than hack it out of the long stuff.

 

[Birchy]

They put them in the rough because more people go there than the fairway :rofl:

 

[Slab]

Being in the rough is not often a hazard, but if your talking about knee high rough then I for one would be glad to land in the bunker rather than hack it out of the long stuff.

I'd have to say that 99 times out of 99, being in the rough is more of a hazard than where you intended to be!

 

[SwingsitlikeHogan]

Bunkers within an area of rough? - surely simply creating an equivalent hazard for a stray or ambitious shot that deep rough would present. Difference being that most clubs don't want rough to be too deep where stray or ambitious might end up as this would result in holding things up as folk hunt for their ball. That said - my club have taken out all such bunkers because they had become redundant due to increased distance players can get these days. And a redundant bunker still has to be maintained as much as a any bunker if it is still in play.