By Forrest Richardson First, let me say that I appreciate your taking the time to talk to me. I’m not going anywhere. Most bunkers don’t have much to say.  What prompted you to speak up? Well, I’m a greenside, and we see more action. Plus, I come from a long line of bunkers that have been given important roles. I suppose it’s in my blood. Or sand. How do you define the primary role of a bunker? We’re here to make you think. Tees, fairways, and greens are the stage, but bunkers are like bouncers: To reach the action, you [...]

The following first appeared in Golf Course Architecture in 2006. Forrest Richardson shares lessons learned while devising the routing plan for The Links at Las Palomas in Sonora, Mexico. Mike had seated himself at the end of the long table. From my vantage point I could see that he was on his third — maybe fourth — tequila shot. His first shots — that is, the very first tastes of tequila to ever cascade their way into his belly — had come just an hour earlier. Mike was from Kansas. Rural Kansas is not much on tequila so I am told. This is equitable however. For [...]

The following is excerpted from Bunkers, Pits & Other Hazards, by Forrest Richardson & Mark Fine (©John Wiley & Sons, 2006) The hazard lives primarily for intrigue, to create strategy, to penalize, and to suggest to the golfer, however subtle or strong, to think about choosing a different route. These are the core of the reasons for hazards. Today, as golf courses have become big business, the driving force behind hazards has grown. We now hear of bunkers being placed "as an aid in aiming," water and sand created for "aesthetic qualities," hazards conceived to direct balls away from adjacent land uses, [...]

The following is excerpted from Bunkers, Pits & Other Hazards, by Forrest Richardson & Mark Fine (©John Wiley & Sons, 2006) When the game of golf was first played the term hazard was surely not an actual thing or object. It was a "concept," a situation a player got himself into. A problem not avoided caused your ball to be in trouble and the outcome was not known until you performed. Only as time progressed did these perilous situations became known as "hazards." The concept became a defined term: "Your ball is in a hazard." The definition of a "hazard" varied over [...]

The following is excerpted from Bunkers, Pits & Other Hazards, by Forrest Richardson & Mark Fine (©John Wiley & Sons, 2006) Ideally every golf course should have "a golf course architect." It amazes us how often we find this not to be the case. If there ever were a type of facility within our built environment that truly needs and deserves the continual advice of a design professional, it is the golf course. Our encouragement to clubs, committees and greenkeepers is to develop an on-going relationship with a qualified golf course architect. You would be surprised how easy it is to find [...]

The following was adapted from writing in Routing the Golf Course, by Forrest Richardson (©John Wiley & Sons, 2002) It is true that some golfers are hitting the ball farther these days. I suspect that the term these days will apply no matter the year in which this paragraph is read. As equipment improves, it increases the likelihood of a golf ball traveling farther down a fairway. What has not necessarily improved is the golfer. I know this because the last group I was paired with had a healthy investment in golf clubs but no investment in improvement. They hit the ball [...]