Teton Pines - Wilson, WY (Arnold Palmer Design Company, 1980s; revisions by Thad Layton, Arnold Palmer Design Company, 2021 and 2022)
Though only some 30+ years old, Teton Pines is one of the older courses in Jackson Hole, leading it to want a refresh of its bunkers and a few other features. Within Thad’s master plan, we had some room to try to do something a little different stylistically with the bunkers. The first thing to do, as it is in most cases, was to play off the course’s most notable and inspiring feature. In this case, that would be the ever present views of the Teton Mountain Range. We then chose to emphasize the backing landform of the bunker over the flashing sand, creating deeper grassy faces with broken, varied top lines that change in size and depth as do the nearby mountains. In essence, we tried to create mini-mountains where the light and shadowing would react in similar ways but at much different scales. The sand would follow lower in a broken, natural sort of way but not flash so high as to distract from the form shaping. It was a lot of fun to play with, and we really like how things turned out.
Hole 5 at Teton Pines, where we split both the greenside and fairway bunkers to break up overly large expanses of sand and add layered depth and shadowing inspired by the breathtaking backdrop of the Teton Range.
Greenside on the 5th hole, where we also expanded the front left corner of the green to get a pin tucked close to the bunker edge as well as fix a surface drainage issue.
Layering on the 4th hole, not just between this fairway bunker and the distant greenside bunkers but also within the fairway bunker itself
The 9th hole with just after shaping completed
The 9th hole a year later
As part of the reshaping on 9, we made the right-side bunker a wraparound one. Doing this while also expanding the green there allows for a scary hole location hanging out on a peninsula in the sand
The new bunker scheme on the par five 2nd hole, where a right green side bunker was removed and a small front left bunker added, which created incentive to take on this pair of fairway bunkers in the foreground on the second shot.
The back bunker on hole 6 during shaping, showing the sharp ridgeline meant to mimic the mountains.
The 16th hole after a reshaped back bunker and two new front bunkers. I particularly like how the middle part of the back bunker slowly disappears behind the landform on the right part of the bunker.
The biggest bunker on the course after shaping and drainage trenches dug
Newly reshaped and shifted bunkering on the par five 14th hole