There’s little worse than getting it a bit clean out of a greenside bunker and watching it sail over the flag. I tell a lie. There is something worse. Hitting it out of bounds too, which is exactly the woe David McLaren revealed to me in an email…
“My partner hit his bunker shot over the green and out of bounds. Is he allowed to rake the bunker before dropping the ball for his penalty? And is it a drop or a place?”
So, do you get to clean up after yourself or are you taking relief in a mess of your own footprints? Let’s find out…
Bunker rules: Going out of bounds from a bunker
Don’t worry. If this ever happens to you – and it’s happened to me plenty – you don’t have to be punished for your initial error by dropping into your dug in footmarks.
Rule 12.2b (3) states there are no restrictions after a ball is played out of the bunker.
You can touch the sand without penalty and you can also smooth sand in the trap to care for the course.
For David’s partner, though, the key point comes now. You can do this even if the “ball comes to rest outside the bunker and the player is required or allowed by the Rules to take stroke-and-distance relief by dropping a ball in the bunker”.
Having hit the ball out of bounds, the player must take stroke-and-distance relief under Rule 18.2b, playing a ball from where the previous stroke was made under Rule 14.6, and dropping in a one-club relief area in the bunker.
Once they take relief, though, the Rules say the restrictions covering touching sand in a bunker under Rule 12.2b and actions improving conditions affecting the stroke under Rule 8.1a again apply.
Got a question for our expert?
Despite the changes to the Rules of Golf in 2019 and 2023, there are still some that leave us scratching our heads. I’ll try to help by featuring the best of your queries in this column.
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