Bunkers

I have mentioned previously my view of those selfish, inconsiderate members (and guests) who do not rake bunkers. Another bunker problem is the habit of many golfers to leave rakes near the edge of the bunker where, if the rake catches the ball, it leaves an impossible shot stymied by the bunker lip. Both these actions (not raking, leaving rakes near edges) occur all too frequently despite repeated requests from the committee to treat bunkers properly. On any given day, when playing a round I have observed at least 50% of bunkers on the course have either unraked footprints or badly placed rakes or both.

What to do? Well, there is one obvious action that would immediately improve the situation dramatically. Have a policy where rakes are left out of (on a designated spot), rather than in, bunkers. Such a policy would have a number of benefits.

First of all, many golfers who do not rake bunkers do so (I believe) because their ball in the bunker is some considerable distance from the nearest rake in the bunker. This can be as much as 10 or 15 metres. Having to walk this distance to the rake and then rake that 10-15m in addition to raking where you played from is too much of a disincentive for many golfers. This problem would be alleviated if rakes were located to the side of the bunker and players could easily take the rake into the bunker where they enter.

The problem of badly placed rakes in bunkers would also be immediately solved if rakes were placed to the side of the bunker.

I know this has been suggested to the committee, and presumably they’ve considered it. So why don’t we do it?

Well, first of all, the paragon of all things golf at Peninsula Country Golf Club, Mike Clayton, once stated that it was against the rules of golf to leave rakes outside bunkers. This is wrong.

Miscellaneous Decision 2 from the RoG refers to the question “Should rakes be placed in or outside bunkers?”. You can read the decision in full if you want, but in summary it states :

Therefore, after considering all these aspects, it is recommended that rakes should be left outside bunkers in areas where they are least likely to affect the movement of the ball.

Although it does state that ultimately this is a decision for the committee. In any case, leaving rakes outside bunkers is not against the rules as Mike Clayton asserts, or at least used to assert.

Perhaps his error was pointed out to him, as Mike Clayton’s position is now that bunkers are hazards which are meant to be avoided, therefore if a players encounter difficulties with rakes in bunkers it is only just. He also advocates that bunkers should not be raked at all, as they are hazards to be avoided, after all.

Well, yes, hazards are to be avoided, but bunkers are different to water hazards. The game of golf expects players to generally take a drop out of water hazards, but play the ball out of bunkers. Having an impossible lie in a bunker is therefore not in the spirit of golf, in this humble blogger’s view. Also, I’d like to see what Mike Clayton thought of unraked bunkers, or being stymied by badly placed rakes, when he was playing in professional tournaments. I bet he’d be writing a scathing article on the running of that tournament if it was him being affected.

Another reason given for keeping rakes in bunkers, this time by the committee, is that we don’t have enough ground staff to adopt this practice. In other words, this would increase the workload on ground staff undertaking mowing by more than we can afford. Really? What analysis has been done in support of this view, or is it just an excuse to keep the ground staff happily in their seats. (Ground Staff management is an entire topic for discussion another day).

Well, I have done some analysis, and here it is.

There is a total of approximately 127 bunkers on the two courses. (I might be one or two out, but that’s about right). Virtually all bunkers have one or two rakes in them – let’s say an average of 1½ rakes per bunker. That’s a total of about 190 rakes.

Now, I estimate it would take about 20 seconds for a groundsman to get off his mower seat, pick up the rake, mow the area, and then return the rake and remark the painted guide if required. So, for the whole course, that’s an extra 190 x 20 seconds work. That is, about one man-hour per day.

And this assumes that every single rake would be placed in a position that requires daily mowing and that no two bunkers could share a single rake – both of which are not the case.

So, according to club management, we can’t afford less than one additional man-hour of work per day to achieve this substantial benefit to the club and players.

Of course, that’s rubbish. The real reason is that club management (ie. Gary Richardson) wants to stay sweet with the groundstaff who don’t want to trouble themselves with having to get off the seat of their machine.