One of golf’s hallowed sites, the Road Hole bunker on the Old Course at St Andrews, has been saved. The threatened emasculation of what is the most famous and most feared bunker in all golf has been averted, to the relief of traditionalists everywhere.
Not only have concerns been allayed, the 17th may become an even more difficult hole. The bunker has always given the 17th the reputation of the hardest par four in world golf but now the ‘gathering area†in front has been extended. This means it will be easier than ever to find the dreaded pit.
The rescue has emerged from a rethink by the four wise men who comprise the greens subcommittee of the links management committee, the body responsible for upkeep of the St Andrews courses.
The bunker had been moved back from the putting surface and its height had been reduced. The greens subcommittee inspected work on the area — which took two men a month and cost about R50 000 — and decided that, although the gathering area was fine, the bunker needed to be restored to within a few inches of its previous depth.
This will reinstate the degree of difficulty needed to frighten the pants off the world’s best golfers and maintain the hole’s unique challenge.
For decades golfers have stood over their second, or even third, shots to the Road Hole green and said: ‘Don’t go left. Do not go left.†Of course they cannot go right either, for that way lies a literal road to perdition, the stretch of tarmac that gives the hole its name. There is no room for error: miss left or right and the double
bogey or worse is likely.
Oh, and don’t be short either. From the front edge of the green it has been easy enough to putt into the bunker — as Ernie Els and Jose Maria Olazabal have done in Open championships — although the new gathering area’s contours make that less likely.
It is, perhaps, a measure of how relatively easy the ‘new†Road Hole bunker had become that your correspondent played seven shots in it last week, got all of them out and kept five of them on the green. If I can do that, so can anyone.
Peter Mason, external relations manager of the St Andrews Links Trust, said a decision on bunker depth would not be made until January. However, it was likely that the recommendation by the subcommittee would be rubber-stamped when approved by the Royal and Ancient.
Mason admitted that the bunker had probably become too shallow, though this was only ever a ‘first shot†at renovating the area. The ‘second shot†should be completed in time for the next big professional event at St Andrews, namely the Dunhill Links Championship towards the end of next year.
Work was overseen by Eddie Adams, the Old Course head greenkeeper who has, over 18 years, seen the bunker in various shapes and sizes. Work uncovered front walls from more than 100 years ago, changing not only the shape but the site of the bunker. ‘We have to redo it about every two years,†he said. ‘If we don’t it gets deeper and deeper.â€
This is because everyone who plays the Old Course for the first time wants to try to get out of the Road Hole bunker even if they have avoided it in regular play. —