Liguori: Bunkers Galore Add To The Challenge At Whistling Straits

By Ann Liguori
» More Columns

Whistling Straits has been glowing under intense sunlight, with mild temperatures in the 70s, during practice rounds on Tuesday and Wednesday as the stunning venue gets ready to host its third PGA Championship, Thursday through Sunday.

The course is a totally manufactured links layout. Seventeen years ago, course architect Pete Dye put his magic touch on the land to design this unique championship venue with majestic dunes, deep bunkers and rolling terrain. Thirteen-thousand truckloads of sand were brought in to help fill in the rugged land that hugs Lake Michigan.

Previously, the area was being used as an anti-aircraft military base. Before Herb Kohler purchased the land, it was threatened to be turned into a nuclear power plant.

MORE: KOHLER ON COURSE, PGA CHAMPIONSHIP

In 2004, the first year Whistling Straits hosted the PGA Championship, Vijay Singh won in a playoff. Martin Kymer prevailed in a playoff over Bubba Watson in 2010. Dustin Johnson was primed to win his first major championship that year as he led by one shot over Martin Kaymer and Watson, playing the final hole. But Johnson grounded his club in a bunker on his second shot on the 18th, not knowing it was a bunker. The score that he initially penciled in on his scorecard, a bogey, would have gotten him into the playoff. But that bogey became a triple bogey after he had to take a two-stroke penalty for grounding his club, and suddenly, he was out of the running.

There's been endless discussion on the controversy ever since. In 2010, the area in question had been trampled on by fans and Johnson never thought it was a bunker. It looked more like a worn-out area on the course.

To prevent any controversies this year, a notice to competitors regarding the 1,100-plus bunkers on the course has been distributed in even more areas than 2010, in a variety of spots so players will read it. It's apparently even in the players' bathroom!

1. All areas of the course that were designed and built as bunkers, filled with sand, will be played as bunkers (hazards), whether or not they have been raked. This will mean that many bunkers positioned outside of the ropes, as well as some areas of bunkers inside the ropes, close to the rope line, will likely include numerous footprints, heel prints, trash and tire tracks during the play of the Championship. Such irregularities of surface are a part of the game and no free relief will be available from these conditions. All bunkers inside the ropes will be raked each morning prior to play as normal.

2. Stones in bunkers are moveable obstructions (Rule 24-1 applies)

On Wednesday morning, Kerry Haigh, PGA of America chief championships officer, said this about the bunkers: "As many of you know, we have posted a notice, we gave this to every player in the registration packet. We gave it to every caddie in their registration packet. And we have given it to all of you, the media, so that you will be aware of the rule of how we are playing these bunkers this week.

"Again, we posted it on the locker room notice board and on the starting tees. The question has come up, well, why are we playing it this way as opposed to at Kiawah Island where we did not play the bunkers, there were no bunkers on the course at Kiawah Island. The difference is, here, all the bunkers are designed as bunkers, they're built as bunkers, defined as bunkers and are filled with sand. At Kiawah Island when we were there, parts of the bunker were shaped, but in many cases the sand just went off. Maybe 20, 30 feet, sometimes 200 feet, sometimes a quarter-mile all the way to the ocean. There was no definition to where the bunker would stop or start. So, in that case at Kiawah, it made all the sense to play no bunkers on the course. Here, where the bunkers are far more clearly defined, there's sand in each of them, as we did in 2004 and 2010 and again this year, we are playing them all as bunkers."

Johnson is scheduled to come into the media room at 4:30 p.m. ET on Wednesday.

I'm sure this time around, he -- and every other competitor here at Whistling Straits -- won't even think about grounding his club in any area that has dirt in it.

Kohler, the owner of Whistling Straits, told me that of the 1,100-plus bunkers on the property, only 100-plus really come into play, unless the wind carries the ball to these nasty areas.

Bunkers or not, Whistling Straits, at 7,501 yards, with dramatic elevation changes and challenging greens, will provide plenty of drama.