Question 1
You are playing hole number nine on the Royal Golf Course.
You hit your second shot just short of the bunker in front of the green. When you arrive at your ball you noticed that one of the groups in front of you forgot to rake the bunker. Your third shot would be directly over the bunker that is not raked. Are you allowed to rake the bunker before your third stroke?
Answer to Question 1
“No”
Rule 8.1 You have to play the course as you find it.
By raking the bunker, you would be improving your line of play.
Penalty for breach of Rule 8.1 improving your line of play: General Penalty Two Strokes
Question 2
You are playing hole number nine on the Royal Golf Course.
Your second shot ends up in the bunker in front of the green. Not being able to play towards the hole, you play your third stroke backwards towards the teeing area with the ball coming to rest outside the bunker.
Are you allowed to improve your line of play by raking the bunker before your fourth stroke?
Question 3
You are playing hole number nine on the Royal Golf Course.
Your second shot is in the bunker in front of the green.
Your third shot you hit out of bounds.
Out of bounds is a stroke and distance penalty, which means you will be dropping a ball in the bunker for your fifth stroke. Are you allowed to rake the bunker before you drop your ball for your fifth stroke?
Answers to Questions 2 & 3
“Yes” You are allowed to rake the bunker in questions 2 & 3
Rule 12.2b(3) No Restrictions After Ball is Played Out of Bunker
After a ball in a bunker is played and is outside the bunker, or a player has taken or intends to take relief outside the bunker, the player may:
• Touch sand in the bunker without penalty under Rule 12.2b(1), and
• Smooth sand in the bunker to care for the course without penalty under Rule 8.1a.
This is true 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, or
• The sand in the bunker is on the player’s line of play for the next stroke from outside the bunker.
Here is this month’s golf etiquette tip: After raking a bunker here at Heritage Palms, the proper way to leave the rake is to leave most of the rake in the bunker, leaving about one foot of the handle outside the bunker.
