Even though there was
plenty of sand to deal with, there were no bunkers on the course. All sandy
areas at the Ocean Course, except those inside water hazards, were defined as
through the green. “Through the green” is the term used by the Rules of Golf to
refer to all of those areas on the course that are not the teeing ground of the
hole being played, not the putting green of the hole being played, not water
hazards and not bunkers.
In other words, through the green includes the
fairway, the rough and naturally sandy areas.
Although this is the first
PGA Championship that was played on a course without bunkers, this was not the
first time the PGA of America has conducted a competition at the Ocean Course
without bunkers.
Mark Wilson, former chair
of the PGA of America’s Rules of Golf Committee, recently told an interviewer,
"You know we (the PGA of America) did not have bunkers here in 1991 during
the Ryder Cup , nor at the 2005 PGA Professional National Championship nor the
2007 Senior PGA Championship. That rule is a product of architecture, not a
reaction to any event that occurred previously." Thus, the decision to
have a “bunker-less” championship was not made because of Dustin Johnson’s
difficulty in the infamous bunker on the 18th hole at Whistling Straits during the 2010 PGA
Championship.
The differences in
topography and architecture between The Ocean Course at Kiawah Island and most
other courses was the reason for this decision. According to the Rules of Golf,
a bunker “is a hazard consisting of a prepared area of ground, often a hollow,
from which turf or soil has been removed and replaced with sand or the
like.”
Why was this not
implemented during the 2010 PGA Championship at Whistling Straits? Although there are more than 1,000 sandy
areas on the Straits course, some large, some small, some containing very fluffy
sand, some containing densely packed sand, all the sand was added in those areas
after turf or soil has been removed. Thus all those sandy areas at the Straits
Course meet the definition of a bunker in the Rules of Golf. Sand is not part
of the natural terrain at the Straits Course. Also, the bunkers at Whistling
Straits are clearly distinguishable as such.
On the other hand, Kiawah
Island’s Ocean Course is built on the Atlantic Coast on a barrier island made
up primarily of sand. Most places on the course that aren’t grass covered are
naturally sandy and many of those naturally sandy areas flow right into more
sculpted sandy areas, especially near putting greens, some of which look a lot
like traditional bunkers. In making the decision to treat all sandy areas
outside of water hazards as through the green, the PGA of America took into
consideration the difficulty they would have trying to differentiate which
sandy areas could be considered bunkers and which should be considered through
the green, as well as the difficulty of clearly identifying where sandy areas
that were not bunkers stopped and those that could be considered bunkers
started. Ultimately they came to the conclusion that such an attempt would in
many areas be all but impossible and opted to treat all sandy areas alike by defining
them as through the green.
Therefore, players were
allowed to ground their clubs as they were addressing the ball, take practice
swings and remove loose impediments in these sandy areas, all things most
golfers know aren’t allowed in bunkers but that are allowed when their ball lies
through the green.