Bunkers

(bunkers are the sand traps on a golf course... I had someone ask me that, so I thought maybe I should clarify)

So far my job has mainly consisted of bunker detail, which is fine and dandy, and I enjoy it quite a lot... Well... asides from the fact that my back feels like ass afterwards...

Anyways...

Bunkers are fairly easy to do so long as you remember three simple things:

1) Old rich people like to complain, so try not to leave anything they can complain about

2) Old rich people like to complain, so try not to make any distractions to complain about

3) Always enter and exit the bunker from a low point in the border

Now as I said, these things are very easy to follow... mostly... Sometimes it's harder to gauge where places are sufficiently low enough (since I've been told to try not to always enter or exit from the same spot... since the grass gets worn away)

Now, before I get too far into my mistakes: REGAN DROVE OUR CART INTO A TREE!!!

My first story happened way back on day two... I had, more or less, just learned the jist of being a bunker rake driver... and I was getting quite proficient at my swirly-swirls and my double backs... My boss is sort of a geek, so I take it when he was making victory arm jestures and 'woo' sounds, that my skills were becomming quite admirable...

Now, as I said, it was day two, and I hadn't quite yet picked up on the entirity of the capabilities of the little tractor rake... They seem to have a lot of power, and the tires have a lot of tread (indicating a lot of traction)...

So whilst finishing my last swoop of one of the bunkers, I begin eyeing up potential exit sites... trying not to make it the same as my entrance... I notice a spot along the east side that looks quite fitting so I drive right for it...

everythig was fine and dandy... until I realised that I had left the rakes down...

Not a problem, I stopped just in time to avoid doing some serious rakage damage to the well manicured lawn... I lifted up the rake and proceeded on my way... But not quite...

Although the lip was an acceptable height, the hill on the other side required a little more momentum than comming from a dead stop... The tread on the tires, rather than acting as traction to get up the hill, we're acting as graters tearing their way into the grass... not cool...

So I throw the thing in reverse, back into the pit and clamour onto the hill praying to god my boss doesn't come around the corner to see how I'm doing...

I try my best to make my mess as disguised as possible (really it looked like a divet... just in a place a ball wouldn;t naturally come to rest) then fixed up the bunker, and drove off like nothing happened...


My next story was today... I was, again, on bunker detail... And after my experience two days before, I was trying to be quite careful as to where I entered and exited... Not a general rule of thumb is wherever there is quite a bit of sand is most certainly the spot there the tractors come out... This is because residual sand is usually knocked off when you hit the bump of the lip...

Turns out there are lots of other reasons for there to be sand on the outside edge of a bunker...

So whilst driving towards my new bunker, I eyed up the spot I would enter... I was downhill a bit, so I couldn't see how much of a drop, but there was plenty of sand, so I figured I was safe...

There wasn't even time for me to brake when I realised how much of a drop it was going to be... And I had to wait a good 5 minutes before one of the mower people came around to help me get my cart off of it's recarious position (I had bottomed out and neither the front nor the back tires could get enough traction to go anywhere)...

Thankfully, no one important was around so I don't owe any beer... But yes...