I’ve been round and round on this edition of the Rules Blog. “Finished” writing this entry about 6 weeks ago and I’ve been chewing on what I wrote ever since. I think I’ve been fairly vociferous about my objection to the REGL Local Rule for bunker play, and I will continue to voice that opposition, because, frankly, I don’t like it, and this is my space to vent. Until I’m tarred, feathered and this venue is removed from the website, I’ll do my own thing. However, I have been part of many discussions over the years on bunker play, the conditions of bunkers at Ruggles, the lack of proper attention to maintaining bunkers, poor drainage, etc., etc. Other opinions have been heard and to some extent, I sympathize with people’s plights, but in the end? Bunkers are built to be avoided. If you’re in there, strap on your big boy pants and fight to get out.
On to Nuts and Bolts. The bunker has its own set of rules and is unlike any other place on the course. Bunkers are designed to be penal, and if you can develop techniques to play out of them, you’ll be well ahead of your competitors. There are no requirements that a golf course groom them, there are no requirements that they should be easy to play out of, and there are no requirements that the areas around the bunker should be well groomed. The bunker edges at this year’s US Open at LA Country Club were some of the gnarliest I’ve ever seen. The grass between the fringe of the green and the lips of the bunkers had to give those guys nightmares. Some bunker situations force the player to play in directions other than straight at the hole or green. The Old Course at St. Andrews (the home of golf) has a ridiculous number of bunkers, some very small to very large. In many cases, if a player finds himself in one, he has no option but to play out sideways – they are in effect a one-shot penalty. In general, bunker design on courses in this country favor well groomed, playable bunkers that scare the bejesus out of high handicappers, but very good players fear less than being in the deep rough. (If you read the last section again, and you’re a high handicapper struggling to improve your ability to become a low handicapper, improving your bunker skills is a great place to spend some time and effort!)
Unless you end up with a ridiculous lie at Ruggles (maybe under the face of a bunker), all of the greenside and fairway bunkers allow you to play toward the green of the hole in play. The deepest bunkers at Ruggles are also shallow enough that you can get out of them and onto the green with a shot of marginal quality. At times the bunkers can be filled or partially filled with rainwater (although this hasn’t been the case this year for most (Hole #3 is the exclusion) of the bunkers), and the sand can be rock hard or non-existent. So, you should be prepared to play a variety of shots should your ball end up in a bunker.
Before moving on, I think I should spend some time addressing the bunkers on the 3rd hole. Drainage is a huge problem for both the right and left bunkers that front the 3rd green. When I played two weeks ago, the left-hand bunker was probably 80% full of water despite at least a day between play and the last rain event. When I played this past week, there was no standing water, but both bunkers were hard and untilled. I (of course) ended up in the right bunker, my competitor in the left bunker. My competitor asked if “rake and place” was still available (to which I confirmed was still the case and he took advantage of that provision), while I elected to play my ball as it had come to rest on top of the sand. I got out and onto the green, my competitor did not fare as well.
My contention is (the bunkers on the 3rd hole are an occasional exception) – while they aren’t the stuff of Augusta National, the bunkers at Ruggles serve their purpose – they effectively narrow the greens and force you to consider their proximity during your approach to the green. Even if they haven’t been groomed, I contend you can still play out of them if you know HOW. If you don’t know the how, practicing with hard, wet, muddy or water-filled bunkers should be on your list of things to improve.
In this blog entry, I’m going to address the rules for playing a shot out of a bunker according to the Rules of Golf. Unfortunately, later in this entry I’ll have to make your head spin in a different direction, because I’ll also have to talk about your current options in REGL which are quite different.
Can you remove a loose impediment or a movable obstruction from a bunker before a shot? I think there was once a time when you couldn’t, but under the 2019 rules, you may remove that rake, any leaves, stones, sticks or branches before your shot.
There is one big “DO NOT DO!” in a bunker, and it’s related to testing the condition of the sand prior to a shot played from the bunker. You may not touch the bunker with your hand or your club or a rake for purposes of gathering information about the state of the sand in the bunker. You’re supposed to guess if that sand under your ball is light and fluffy, rock hard, or somewhere in between. The amount of water in the sand is also something you can only assess by eye. Again, there is no requirement that all bunkers on a golf course play the same – they can have varying amounts and types of sand, some may drain better than others, etc.
However, you are allowed to dig your feet in to the sand of the bunker in order to position yourself to play a shot in the bunker, and that allowable action may tell you a lot about the sand near your ball. Touching the sand with your hand (unless it’s to keep you from falling over) or with a club (other than (again), to keep from falling over) will earn you 2 strokes to your score for every individual violation. You cannot make a practice swing in the bunker during which you touch the sand with your club. Another poorly understood rule is that you cannot touch the sand on the backswing of your bunker shot. It is now permissible to place clubs in the bunker (say you wandered in there with your putter and a couple of wedges) – you do not have to throw them out of the bunker to play your bunker shot.
Whenever I’m in a bunker and am about to position myself for a shot, I’m always thinking “Hover, hover, hover”, never bringing my club in contact with the sand. Once I’ve completed the shot AND the ball has left the bunker – I rake that bunker, taking care to smooth all of the sand that I’ve disturbed plus a good bit more of the area around that disturbed area. If the ball doesn’t make it out of the bunker on the first shot, you need to be very careful not to ground your club after the first shot, otherwise you may be accused of testing the sand in the bunker. One small change since 2019 allows you to strike the sand in anger or frustration without penalty, but I’d never do it since I could foresee arguments about whether or not I’d be adding penalty strokes to my score.
We talked about deflecting a moving ball in one of the previous blog entries, and the likelihood of a deflected ball is a lot higher when you’re facing a bunker shot from an area near the bunker lip. Just keep in mind that there is no more penalty for deflecting a moving ball (as long as it is not deliberate), and you have to accept the location where the ball ends up – even if it’s back in the bunker.
We will also talk about relief and taking an unplayable in a bunker, and I’m going to save the details until we get to Rules 16 and 19.
REGL Local rules for Bunkers (in place starting in 2022). In league play, you are allowed (but not required) to Lift your ball from any bunker, Rake the area where the ball came to rest, and Place the ball back in a position as close as possible to where the ball came to rest. If for some reason the ball will not stay in position, the player can press the ball into the sand to keep it in place. You are still required to play the shot without grounding your club, but you’ve successfully tested the condition of the sand AND improved your lie in the bunker. In any competitive tournament, you’d at least have to add 2 penalty strokes and you may have been disqualified. Not so in REGL.