Hazard (golf)

Playing the ball from a bunker is considered more difficult than from closely mown grass, and to do so proficiently requires a high degree of skill.

According to Kathryn Baker, curator, British Golf Museum, St. Andrews, Scotland[2], sand traps were formed out of natural depressions in the landscape because "the sheep would burrow down behind them (dunes) to take shelter from the wind.

There are three types of bunkers used in golf course architecture and all are designed to be impediments to the golfer's progress toward the green.

Waste bunkers are natural sandy areas, usually very large and often found on links courses; they are not considered hazards according to the rules of golf, and so, unlike in fairway or greenside bunkers, golfers are permitted to ground a club lightly in, or remove loose impediments from, the area around the ball.

[3] Penalty areas, like bunkers, are natural obstacles designed to add both beauty and difficulty to a golf course.