History Of Sand Trap In Golf Linked Back To Single Apathetic Groundskeeper

Golf has always had a storied past, ranging from farmers hitting rocks with sticks all the way to today’s modern masterpiece of ball striking. However, until now, little was known about the sand trap and the singular apathetic groundskeeper that changed the course of golfing history.

John Bunker, a wise groundskeeper not afraid to go rogue, believed golf to be too easy. He always yearned for a house by the sea, so Bunker did the unthinkable: He brought the ocean to the fairway and put sand on grass. To Bunker’s credit, it is a well-documented fact that prior to 1841, first-time golfers often deemed the game unchallenging and painless with an average score of 36 after 18 holes.

But Bunker, the apathetic man that he was, saw the game’s potential, its future. He foresaw the proper challenge that a golf course should pose to a player, that one day golfers worldwide would be able to spend thousands of dollars on state-of-the-art equipment only to fail again and again until the ball striker concludes that they themselves are the truest failure and will never achieve happiness.

Of course, the sand trap did go through a tumultuous series of changes over the years. The 1850s included sand with a smothered bear trap, the early 1900s included quick sand traps, and the 1920s had a chained badger hoping a golfer would dare enter its sandy domain. It wasn’t until the PGA released its initiative to “remove the violence from golf” in mid-1936 until golf finally settled on the sand trap we know and love today.

John Bunker also joined the Great Golf Rebellion of 1873, and with six other groundskeepers (called the “Glorious Golf 7”), played a substantial role in digging a large hole and filling it with water.

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