Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1910-08-14
VARIATION IN GROUND
BOTHERS AMERICAN GOLFERS
Change in Distances Attainable, Brought
About by Varying Hardness OF the
Earth, Makes System ofHazards
Difficult to Arrange.

With regard to the SCALED 'pot-bunk-
er epidemic" on golf courses, the aues-
ton has been asked again and again
within the last few weeks if this latest
idea has not been carried too far. Dur
ing the recent championship of the East
ern Professional Golfers Association at
Salisbury il was pointed out, and proba-
bly, with good reason, that, under certain
conditions. it is easily possible to overdo
the trapping business. Take Salisbury as
it has been of late-baked out and as
hard as flint. Even the most accurate
of the professionals found it impossible
to keep out of trouble for any great
length of time, and had it not been for
their exceptional powers of recovery they
never would have been enabled to score
in anything like the low figures that
marked practically all their rounds.
Right here il is worthy of mention that
we'll known follower of the game has
pointed out that. in his opinion, the pres
ent system of placing pot bunkerS having
especial regard to the fact that the rough
has been to a great extent worn down, is
unnecessary, in that this form OF hazard
does not insure sufficiently large proper
ton of the really bad shots being pun
shed
TO go back period it may be recalled
tndt some twenty years ago w lllie bunl
was the pioneer of the so-called new
school Briefly. his tenets amounted to
this: Bunkers should be so placed that
they must be carried; in other words. they
should consist of great earthworks
stretching right across the course at
stated intervals Without discussing the
merits or faults Of this school of thought.
it may be said that both the creed and
its followers are rapidly disappearing:
Those who believe in the old school OF
I'd
as obstacles which should be circumvent-
ed rather than carried.
Artificial Hazards Numerous.
1t has been claimed that a golf archi-
tect who knows his business should be
able to lay out a course every shot on
which provides a searching test of the
scratch golfer. but which in no way
breaks the heart of long handicap man.
On the other side, the courses at Walton
Heath Working and Warplesdon show a
total of about $50 artificial hazards. OF
these, 30 are of the small pot variety,
while the remaining fifteen belong TO the
type of trouble known as the ribbon
bunker.
Assuming, for the sake OF argument.
that there is the least foundation in fact
for the suggestion that pot-bunkers are
an unnecessary form of hazard, it is con-
tended that such must be manifest at a
hole of, say. 500 yards in length where
it is assumed that the badly bulled or
sliced tee shot has itself escaped pun
ishment. But even so. what chance
would the player have as against an OPP
ponent who has taken the proper line, if
the hole were bunkered on, say, three
sides near the green? There were Occa-
sions in the decisive match in the eastern
championship between James Maiden and
Tom Anderson. jr., where the first named,
although considerably outdriven, got
much closer to the pin on his second shot
than the other. This was also true when
Maiden had to play from the rough, but
it may have happened that at those par
ticular green's the approach was compare
lively open.
With regard to the reference suggesting
that it would be we'll to have a type of
hazard to take the place of the pot
bunker or to be used in conjunction with
the latter. a certain radical not long since
advocated that the fairway Of each hole
should be inclosed by species Of grip,
and that player who. with any given
shot, was over that grip should be penal
lied one stroke, and either play the ball
from where it lay or lift according to
rule. 1t is difficult to believe that this
suggestion was put forward seriously. In
other words, it seems almost as much out