Rule of the Week 24th July 2009 - Bunkers

Bunkers can cause a few arguments on the golf course. This week we shall look at a few scenarios that can lead to disputes.

Prohibited actions

Except as provided in the rules, before making a stroke at a ball that is in a hazard (whether a bunker or water hazard) the player must not:

• Test the condition of the hazard or any similar hazard
• Touch the ground in the hazard or water in the water hazard with his hand or a club; or
• Touch or move a loose impediment lying in or touching the hazard 
  

The diagram below shows the difference between Loose Impediments & Movable Obstructions. So anything on the right can be removed from the bunker, bur any of the items on the left cannot be touched if your ball lies in the bunker.

The rules states that you cannot test the condition of the bunker. Raking a bunker is deemed to be testing the condition of the hazard, so when can you rake a bunker?

Let's say your ball lies in the hazard at the end of a long bunker and the rake is at the opposite end as in figure 1. Can you walk into the bunker to get the rake then smooth out your footprints with the rake as you leave the bunker?

NO This is deemed to be testing the condition of the hazard and you would be given a 2 stroke penalty.

 

Fig 2 shows a ball in the front of the bunker in position "A". You play the shot but you don't get the ball out and it comes to rest in position "B". Can you rake your footprints from where you played your first shot.

YES In such circumstances Rule 13-4 permits smoothing out footprints etc, provided nothing is done to breach rule 13-2 with respect to the players next stroke.

 

Everyone has a different idea of where the rakes should go. The PGA leave the rakes out of the bunkers for competitions, while most clubs ask that rakes be left in the bunkers. There is no right or wrong for this it depends on the individual club. At Horton Park we ask that the rake be placed in the bunker facing the direction of play. Below are a few picture I took last week of our bunkers.

Now you see why it's important to place the rake back in the bunker in the correct place. So what do you do if you are in one of these situations. In the first 2 pictures if the ball moves after the rake is removed then the ball MUST be replaced. What about the third picture, is there a different procedure for this problem?

YES: The ball MUST be DROPPED (Rule 24-1b) in the bunker as near as possible to where the ball would have been had it not rested on the obstruction.

The picture below shows a bunker that has just been raked by a member, at first glance it looks ok.

 

Now your ball goes in the bunker, doesn't look so good now does it.

 

So the next time you play out of a bunker, spare a thought for the next person behind you that hits thier ball into the bunker, they should have at lease the same type of lie you did or if you do the right thing, maybe even better.