There should be a rake associated with every bunker on a golf course. I encourage you to use one after each successful exit of your ball from a bunker. If more people raked bunkers, I think we’d all end up with a more manageable shot from within these special areas of the course. Unfortunately, there are a lot of golfers that won’t even pick one up – what’s left is their footprints and inevitably, your ball will end up in one. And when you’re finished – toss that rake outside the bunker. Why, you ask? Read on….
Heard a story worth relating regarding a match last week. A ball entered a bunker and became lodged up against a rake that was in the bunker. What’s the proper procedure for dealing with such a situation?
First and foremost, the bunker rake is not a part of the bunker, it’s man-made and not part of the course, so by definition, it’s an OBSTRUCTION. There’s a whole rule in the book devoted to such things (Rule 24). It deals with cart paths, sprinkler heads, pump houses, trash, benches, ball washers, signs and the like. There are two different types of obstructions – movable, and immovable. A bunker rake falls into the movable category (Rule 24.1). Thus, if your ball is in that bunker, you’re encouraged to move the rake. Before you move the rake, mark the position of your ball (with a ball marker) and lift the ball. Remove the rake and replace the ball. Easy, peasy. However, in the case of the incident in league play, the rake was removed from the bunker before the ball was marked, and upon removal of the rake, the ball rolled closer to the hole. Causing the ball to move while removing the obstruction is not a penalty, BUT you must replace the ball in its original position prior to moving the rake. This little requirement can be tricky. Usually rakes are placed on the uphill portion of a bunker if they’re left in a bunker, and getting a ball to stay where the rake was left can be hard to do if the bunker edges are hard sand (like you get after a rain storm). What do you do if you can’t place the ball back in the same spot? Can you push down on the ball and force it lightly into the sand to get it to stay put? No. That’s a penalty for testing the condition of the bunker and you’d have to add 2 strokes to the score on that hole. (If we were using match play rules, you’d lose the hole!)
If you can’t get the ball to stay put, you’ll have to move back away from the hole and try to find a spot where the ball will stay at rest (just like you would on a putting green if you place a ball and it keeps rolling away from that spot). If you can’t find any spot IN THAT BUNKER AND FURTHER FROM THE HOLE which will hold the ball still, the implications are bad and frankly a bit unfair (detailed in a USGA Decision 20-3d/2, which you can only find on the USGA website or in their published decisions book (I’m guessing a PGA Professional would have a copy of these)). You’d have to EITHER declare the ball unplayable and you’d be forced to play from the previous spot with a one-stroke penalty, or take a one-stroke penalty and play the ball from outside the bunker as you would if the bunker was full of water – draw a line from the flagstick through the original ball position and drop anywhere along that line as far back as you wish. I hope no one ever encounters this issue – it’s frankly unfair (a one-stroke penalty) and another example of why you don’t want to end up in any hazard – AVOID THEM!
What about if the entire ball is resting only on the rake (it’s not touching the sand of the bunker)? Since the ball isn’t resting on a portion of the course, you’ll have to mark the location directly under the ball and drop the ball as close as possible to that spot once you’ve removed the rake. If the ball rolls closer to the hole after contacting the bunker, drop again. If it rolls forward on the 2nd drop, place the ball where you dropped it. There are no penalty strokes associated with this one UNLESS the ball won’t stay where you place it. In that case, you’re right back to the unfairness associated with a ball that won’t stay put (see the previous paragraph!).
Another little nugget – if you’re lifting a ball to get relief from an obstruction, you MAY clean it – EVEN IF IT’s IN A BUNKER (or a water hazard).
So, getting back to placement of rakes. If they’re outside of the bunker, you can treat them as obstructions and be able to place your ball in the grass if you’re ball ends up against them or on them. Yeah, an approach may hit one in the grass and shoot the ball into a bunker, but the chances of that are pretty small. By leaving the rake in a bunker and having your ball come to rest against it you may end up not being able to hold your ball still and you’ll be adding a stroke to your score. Even if you can get the ball to sit still, a downhill bunker shot is really tough. Leave the rakes outside the bunker and the ball will have a decent chance of rolling into the center of the bunker without being impeded by a rake. If a course asks you to place the rakes in the bunker, throw them into the CENTER of the bunker, don’t leave them on the edges. My 2 cents….