– The Memorial Park Golf course hosts the Texas Children’s Houston Open for the fifth consecutive time this week. It’s a public course, par 70 for the tournament, that stands out for a very peculiar feature: it only has 19 bunkers.
– Its origins date back to 1912, when a nine-hole course with sand greens was built. It wasn’t until 1936 that an 18-hole course, designed by John Bredemus, was inaugurated. This course had reached our days, with its various modifications and remodels, with 54 bunkers, but a major renovation by Tom Doak in 2019, aimed precisely at hosting this Houston Open, among other things, reduced the number of sand traps to well below half.
– And truth be told: the ones that were removed and replaced around the greens with different sloping run-offs with closely mown grass are not missed. Nor are some of those removed from the fairways of the Texan course. After all, neither the average amateur is particularly thrilled by these traps on the fairways, nor do they overly penalise professionals or very low handicaps in most cases.
– Therefore, it is a week to pay close attention to this peculiar feature. It certainly invites reflection, especially for golf course designers, as the maintenance cost of multiple and sometimes gigantic sand traps is very high and they do not always add interest or excitement to the game, whether in the amateur or professional world.
– The 18th hole at Memorial Park has three bunkers defending the green and is the only one on the course with such a number of sand traps. Moreover, up to six holes on the Texan course have no bunkers at all (holes 4, 6, 8, 13, 15, and 16). Additionally, holes 1, 5, 12, 17, and 18 have no fairway bunkers. And the truth is that it doesn’t matter at all: the course has other defences, some of them (the aforementioned run-offs, for example) more efficient and spectacular.
