I can say for certain that we're lucky to have a league commissioner like Steve Hensley. Loves the game, cares about the league, handles all the crap. If you think it's an easy job, you're wrong. Steve and I have worked together, golfed together, have lived in agony following the Phillies and Eagles, and more Sundays than not, sit in the same pew at church. I hear a lot of his stories (usually lamenting one stroke that cost him a match or a trophy), shake my head and smile. Steve is Steve, but sometimes he's wrong (but he is man enough to admit a mistake). More on that later....
This week a question was raised about two areas of Ruggles Golf Course that aren't the same this year. The first area is the old fairway bunker on #9. I didn't know it, but that hole used to be a par 4 with the tees placed just up from the 8th green. In that configuration that old bunker may have received some action. Not very much today. In fact, through Steve's efforts, some fill from his test facility ended up filling in the old bunker a few weeks ago. What's left is some ungraded dirt that needs some grass seed. It's Ground Under Repair (or in the new rule lexicon - an Abnormal Ground Condition). I took a look at that area last week, and there is (if you look closely) a painted white line that encircles the dirt. I almost went to my knees when I saw it in shock - Ruggles doesn't go to any great lengths to mark anything. If your ball ends up inside that line, you may take free (and complete) relief from the abnormal ground condition (in other words, if you take relief from the condition, you can't take a stance within it. The point of nearest relief that's no closer to the hole should be determined, and then you can drop within a club length of that position (just like a cart path, which happens to be another abnormal ground condition). Steve got all of that right in his explanation about what you can do on #9.
However, the second question - what to do about the water-filled bunker on #12 was not answered correctly. While it is true that you can find the place where the effect of the water is least and drop it there in the bunker with no penalty, in order to play from outside of a water-filled bunker, you must pay a penalty of one stroke. If you decide to take that option, you treat the water-filled bunker as you would a water hazard with the same options available to you (play the ball as it lies, go back to your previous spot, or draw a line between the flagstick and the ball's location in the bunker and go back on that line as far as you like to drop the ball (from knee height) within a one club-length distance of that line. (Apparently Steve is another one (there are many) who doesn't read my blog - I addressed just this scenario about a month ago in the blog entitled "How do you spell relief?").
Now Steve would be correct (being able to remove the ball from the water-filled bunker with no penalty) if Ruggles Golf Course deemed the left bunker on #12 to be Ground Under Repair - but to the best of my knowledge, they have not.