Something's a little different on 13....

If you have played golf in the last two days, you were probably wondering WHAT was going on in #13 fairway bunker.  If you played golf after today, you are probably wondering WHERE #13 fairway bunker went.  With approval of the grounds committee and board, and in concert with the master plan, we have filled it in.

There are several reasons why this was a "no-brainer" in my mind to eliminate this trap.  First of all, it is hidden behind the trees.  It offers no aesthetic value, and is not useful as a target for any reason.  Secondly, it is located well short of the normal landing area thus only punishes already very poor shots.  Third,  eliminating pointless traps is a great way to boost maintenance efficiency.

I know changing the course is often frowned upon, but Harold Weber, the course designer was not designing the course for todays longer hitters.  Also, there are many traps that have been filled in over the years that were out of play or "double hazards" so to speak.  You can see where bunkers have simply been filled on on #9, #14, #1.  Unfortunately, these traps were simply filled with garbage (some of them have asphalt, concrete, leftover materials etc...).  We are removing #13 entirely, with the goal that it look as if it was never there.  There will be some coloration differences with the bluegrass sod that we covered it with, but they will blend out over time.

While it is a change to the original design, I hope we can all agree that in the true spirit of the game, common sense, and course architecture, Highland is better off without it.

The trap was invisible from the tee.  Traps should offer aesthetic value, target value, or "risk-reward" value for agressive lines.  This trap only punished 165-yard slices into the trees, which is already punishment enough.



First we stripped the sod off of the mounding around the trap. 



From either angle, all of the bunker edges were smoothed out.  Unlike the other filled in traps on the course like #1 fairway trap and #9 fairway trap, we actually smoothed the grade so that it appears as if the trap was never there.