Bunkers at their Best
10. Fairway bunker, par-4 10th hole, Augusta National G.C., Augusta, Ga.Originally a lacy greenside bunker, it became a pretty but ineffectual fairway bunker when the green was moved 60 yards back nearly 80 years ago. Today it's a true icon, the last untouched Alister Mackenzie bunker at Augusta. More than 400 yards from the tee, it's set decoration now, but technology may someday bring it back into play. (Stephen Szurlej)
9. "Blow-out" fairway bunker, par-4 18th, Sand Hills G.C., Mullen, Neb.What began as a scar in a sand dune, caused by cattle and exacerbated by erosion, became the focal point for Bill Coore and Ben Crenshaw's finishing hole 20 years ago. Constantly expanded and reshaped by relentless winter winds, it and other "blow-out" bunkers at Sand Hills now serve as models for many golf architects seeking to imitate nature. (Dom Furore)
8. Greenside bunker, par-4 13th, Harbour Town G.L., Hilton Head Island, S.C.On a Pete Dye design full of novel bunkers and railroad ties, the 13th-green complex was designed in 1969 by Pete's wife, Alice, who embraced the green with an enormous Y-shaped bunker faced with vertical cypress planks. By the 1990s, Pete's ties had rotted away. Alice's boards remained solid. (Scott Halleran/Getty Images)
7. "Hell's Half Acre," par-5 seventh hole, Pine Valley (N.J.) G.C.Cross bunkers were once the rage until countless high-handicappers at countless clubs insisted fairways should become bowling alleys. No such nonsense at Pine Valley, where a 50-yard-wide, 100-yard-long patch of sandy scrubland confounds the dub's second (or even third) shot. It's not a problem for the good player, unless he's in the rough off the tee. (Stephen Szurlej)
6. "San Andreas Fault," 16th hole, PGA West (Stadium), La Quinta, Calif.Pete Dye shaped it with the crisp geometry of a tectonic shift -- flat sand, a beveled edge 19 feet high and a pancake green up top -- and proved on national TV that he could hit the green from the base of the face. Still, many golfers experiencing tremors or aftershocks at 16 insist Dye's bunker is a natural disaster. (Evan Schiller)
5. "Principal's Nose," 10th fairway, The Greenbrier (Old White TPC), White Sulphur Springs, W. Va.Two bunkers, you say? Well, two nostrils equal one Nose. Lester George borrowed the strategic concept from Scotland's St. Andrews when he restored the 385-yard 10th. With a carry of 315 yards to clear the Nose, it gives long hitters a choice. (Ron Whitten)
4. Bunker in middle of the 6th green, Riviera C.C., Pacific Palisades, Calif.George Thomas turned his ordinary par 3 into a tantalizing bagel by sticking a bunker within the green. The putting surface has since been enlarged so the pin can be placed nearly anywhere except the back-right neck beyond the sand. A local rule that members must putt around the bunker doesn't apply during PGA Tour events. (Courtesy of Bernie D'Amato)
3. 125-yard-long strip bunker, 18th fairway, Pebble Beach (Calif.) G.L.While a rock seawall prevented the Pacific from chewing away the par 5's fairway, crashing surf sent salt spray onto the grass along the wall. Eventually the dead turf was replaced with sand, and an unintended consequence: the invention of the "buffer bunker," now a common design item, a hazard to keep balls from bounding into a harsher hazard. (Stephen Szurlej)
2. "Church Pews," third/fourth holes, Oakmont (Pa.) C.C.In the 1920s, on the game's most penal layout, William Fownes, son of original designer H.C. Fownes, sought to expose every hooker's sins by converting a cluster of bunkers into a massive confessional featuring aisles of sand separated by eight giant strips of grass dubbed Church Pews. His successors continued the crusade by expanding them to 12 rows. (Stephen Szurlej)
1. "Devil's Asshole" pot bunker, par-3 10th green, Pine Valley G.C., Pine Valley, N.J.Shaped like a funnel, golf's most unforgiving bunker is best described by architects Forrest Richardson and Mark Fine, in their book Bunkers, Pits & Other Hazards, as "this nasty, menacing, dirty, unpleasant, foul, mean, horrid, vile, ungracious, loathsome, beastly and hideous little pit." It's No. 1 because it evokes passion like that. (Stephen Szurlej)