The Development of Golf's Bunkers

Roger Stadtmueller has 25 years of experience as a chartered professional accountant, including 20 years as the managing partner of his own firm. When he's not preparing complex corporate and individual tax returns, Roger Stadtmueller enjoys golfing. 

When a golf shot goes wide of the fairway, depending on the hole and course, there's a chance the ball could end up in the bunker, which is essentially a sand pit. Bunkers often increase the difficulty of a particular hole and act as a penalty for wayward shots. A player who hits a ball into the bunker isn't penalized in the form of strokes, but getting out of the sand can be enough of a challenge that he or she is likely to gain an extra stroke. Course architects today design holes with hazards such as small ponds and other water hazards, as well as sand traps. 

There's no definitive answer as to why sand became a part of the game, but at the earliest stages of the game's development in Scotland, sand would blow across the links, forming pits. Another popular theory is that prior to the creation of courses, the links land was often a refuge for sheep seeking escape from cold Scottish breezes and those sheep would carve out pits. When the land was used for golf, it either took too much time or work for the grass to grow back. Sand was the easy solution.