Hazardous Conditions Ahead

ITS NATURE VERSUS NURTURE ON THESE DAUNTING CHALLENGES

- Ron Whitten

Ever since animals first dug into the sides of sandhills in search of shelter from chilly winds, golf links have had deep, dark, foreboding bunkers. Naturally, golf architects soon began imitating nature, and the results are classic hazards like the Road Hole Bunker at St. Andrews in Scotland.

Today, it’s a rare golf course that doesn’t sport at least one notorious pit or pot bunker. Sometimes its creation is pure happenstance, conceived not on a drawing board but on the spur of the moment in the field.

When workers were initially grading a fairway at the Greg Norman-designed El Cameleón Golf Club on Mexico’s Caribbean coastline, they uncovered a