It seems to me that in order to call the bunkers eye candy, they'd have to be way off of the logical playing lines for the hole.
It also seems to me that in order to call them strategic, despite the fact that people don't seem to find them very often, they'd have to be near the playing lines that would exist if the bunkers weren't there.
[snip]
On the other hand, if the playing lines you guys actually played were the same lines with the same clubs you'd most likely have played if the bunkers werent' there at all (or if they were the same that you'd have played on these holes if Rees had placed the bunkers), then they're eye candy...
OK, I'll take a shot. Guys, please be gentle in pointing out the many places where my list is either incorrect or simply full of crap. Here's what I imagine as the strategic implications of fairway bunkering on the holes that have any that matter...
First hole. As Dick Daley has pointed out, if you're left of the bunkers at all you're in the tall broom grass and will probably not find your ball. So the safe play is right of the bunkers, as close as you feel like cutting it to get a better angle to the green. If the bunkers were not there you might shave it a little closer to the broom grass but and you can still do that if you can carry it 275 uphill.
Second hole. No fairway bunkers on the tee shot. The second shot is only a challenge for those who hit their tee shot in the range of 210-250 yards and/or miss in the rough to the right. And even for those there is room to the left of the fairway bunker which is the best angle to the green anyway.
Fourth hole. If you bite off a little too much on the Cape-style
tee shot you'll have to clear both the water and the steep-front
fairway bunkers. So they penalize shots that were a little too
short that you might have gotten away with if the bunkers were not there. So it's fun in the sense of walking around the lake to see if you cleared the hazard and finding out that its a good news, bad news thing because you're in the bunker. I don't think the bunker dissuade anyone from a line that the hazard wouldn't already have discouraged.
Fifth hole. Everybody knows about that one. Very strategic, IMO.
Sixth hole. The right-hand fairway bunker is about 240-280 from the back tee. If the bunker weren't there then a drive failing to draw sufficiently would go through the fairway into the lost ball rough. So I'd argue that bunker gives the 290-yard driving hooker a chance to take the most favorable line to get his ball rolling into the desirable right-center of the fairway by removing the lost-ball penalty that would otherwise make him either play left or take a shorter club. The left bunkers are there to basically give defined carry hazards rather than just the irregular edge (very oblique diagonal) of the broom grass. I think defining the carry like that is a big help to those of us who can't perfectly visualize lines and carry distances along fuzzy obliques. Quite a few fairway bunkers at Cuscowilla are of that type.
Ninth hole. Like the second, the tee shot is bunkerless and there is a large fairway bunker reaching in to narrow the hole from the right at just short of the distance where a shorter hitter (or anyone missing their tee shot into the right trees)might lay up. Not a factor for anyone who hits the fairway at least 260 yards off the tee. It does tend to discourage you from flirting with the right broom grass but it does so by pushing you toward the left broom grass so no net benefit.
Fourteenth hole. Already discussed to death elsewhere but they are all second shot (or third shot) cross hazards.
Fifteenth hole. The second and larger of the two bunkers on the left would only come into play on the tee shot of a big hitter playing the up tees. From the back tees it's 315-ish to reach that one. It does look gorgeous from the tee, though.
There's a little bunker just into the line of play from the left that's a 290 carry so for big hitters it will encourage either playing closer to the trees on the right or playing a cut. In my inexpert opinion, that little bunker is there to slap the big hitter in the face and say CUT CUT CUT however if you can start the ball just inside those right-side trees and draw it around that little bunker you are golden since the fairway opens up over there with plenty of room to roll out and good visibility to the green.
Seventeenth hole. I'll have to let better players than me assess the strategy on this hole. I just bunt my little drives out into the open area in that short right fairway expanse but that line is out of play for anyone who might hit it more than 260-ish. My intuition is that this might be the most interesting fairway bunkering on the course. If you know you can carry it 250 then you aim left of that right-hand bunker and if you know you won't hit it more than 260 you can aim directly at it. The hole is a draw tee shot for righty so it has subtleties that I won't even guess at for that kind of play.