Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1929-11-24
NATURE PROVIDES
LOTS OF HAZARDS
Indian Springs 86 BunkerS
Hardly Compare With
Famous LayoutS.
BY WALTER r. McCALLUM.

washington have relatively rev traps,
although most of the hazards have been
placed in spots carefully designed TO
catch shots off the line.
buffers may wall when new traps go
i'll at the spots where their sliced tee
shots come TO rest: their kicks may re-
sound to high Heaven as they view an
eXpanSe Of narrow fairway fringed with
bunkers. but, on the whole, the local
golf courses are not anywhere nearly
as severely trapped as many other lay
outs. When 1t Is considered that the
No. 2 course at Pinehurst. where the
pros recently competed in the Mid
south open, has 276 traps, carefully
placed to catch any shot of the line
and deep enough to make the most
skillful pro careful, the golf courses
about Washington, with their paucity
OF traps, should not be too much of
test for the golfers who play them.
Oakmont Has 200 Traps.
Oakmont has just under 200 traps,
and Winged Foot had something like
$50. How many Pine Valley has no
one in this neighborhood seems to know
in q definite way, but at Pine Valley
it is not the number of traps that
counts as much as their location and
their size. Those traps at Pine Valley
are man-killers. Some of them are SO
deep house might be dropped in them
and lost, while others stretch clear
across the fairway and are as much as
SO yards wide. The only trap COM
parable to some of those at PinehurSt
Is that which crosses the fairway at
the fifth at Columbia, and that is not
anywhere near as bad as those holes
of despair at Pine Valley. So that when
it is considered that Indian Spring, with
86 sand traps, tops the other courseS
about the Capital in the number OF
bunkerS placed TO catch the unwary
duifer, 1t may be seen that the golfers
OF Washington really have nothing to
kick about.
After all, it is not the size or the
depth of traps that count so much as
the location. If they are so placed that
a ball may barely carry them from the
tee, or a second shot must be played so
as to barely clear the top of the sand,
even though the bunker itself be a small
one, the problem is that much larger.
Congressional Has Only Sc.
Indian Spring has SO traps, and Co
lumbia and Chevy Chase rank next
with 76 sand traps apiece. In the CO.
lumbia compilation the big trap at the
fifth was counted as a series of Sepa-
rate sand traps, which it is, rather than
one trap, for between the five strips of
sand which adorn this terrifying stretch
are strips of rough grass and grass
covered mounds all of which may be
played like ordinary rough. Out at
Congressional, where Peter Jackson is
completing the job of sodding the sides
of the traps and cutting off the over
hanging lips, there are but So sand
bunkers, although the golfers who play
there insist there must be at least triple
that number, One of the holes at Con-
gressional has not trap In its entire
length, but the natural difficulties
along the way and the distance alone
make up for the lack Of traps. Wash
ington Golf and Country Club, out in
Virginia, where nature has built enough
hazards in the form of bitches and
hills, has but IS traps, but they are so
placed as to cleverly augment the
natural difficulties and make the Vir-
ginia layout one of the most difficult on
which to score about the Capital.
Manor has but 80 traps but here again
Nature has placed enough trouble
around the holes to make the absence
of traps not felt.
At Washington, two holes in row, the
fourteenth and fifteenth, have not a
trap to mar the eXpanSe of fairway, al
though there is little enough fairway,
golfers aver, on either hole. The ditch
at the left of both holes is cleverly
utilized to make these two holes diff
cult enough without sand traps
Traps Scarce at Burning Tree.
Burning Tree has but a few traps,
although every one who has played
the splendid layout between Bannock-
burn and Congressional holds that II
Burning Tree was trapped as rigidly
as Oakmont or Pine Valley, it would
be a weeks work for the average golfer
to get around the course. Bannock-
burn also has only few traps, even
smaller in total number than those at
washington, but here again the natural
difficulties of terrain and roll make up
for the absence of traps. We have failed
to see any one burning up the Bannock--
burn layout even though there are not
many sand traps on the course.
Columbia, Chevy Chase and Indian
Spring, however, are different. These
courses are laid out over different coun-
try than Bannockburn, Washington and
Manor-country where nature has not
put so many troubles in the way of the
hayward golf ball, and where man has
had to step in to augment the natural
difficulties. But Chevy Chase, even
though it looks easy, has plenty Of
trouble along the bunkered way, for in
addition to the rs traps which dot the
layout bitches cross the fairWay in
spots where a poor shot will cause all
sorts of trouble Columbia has some
what the same situation, for here again
the water hazards which meander
through the course are admirably used
to augment the rs bunkerS The course
of the Woodmont Country Club 0or-
merly Town and Country has but 80
bunkers in the entire 18-hole stretch,
but the constructors OF that fine lay
out have made use OF bitches and
natural rolls of terrain TO make one Of
the hardest golf courses to be found
anywhere near Washington.
So, on the whole, the golfers who
wander about the local courses, blowing
up a bit of turf here, and a handful
of sand there, have nothing to wall
about in the matter Of sand traps. II
they had to play a Pine Valley or an
Oakmont or Pinehurst, their means
might be proper, but the local courses
suffer from a paucity of sand traps
rather than plentitude. They all might
be far more severely trapped than they
are and not be made vastly more diff
cult for the man who can knock the
ball straight.