I was in a fairway bunker waiting for the green to clear, and I raked an area of the bunker away from my ball. I was pretty sure that this was allowed, but my playing partner asked. At the time, my belief was that you can rake the bunker as long as you are not improving your stance or lie. I was raking the bunker to care for the course.
And that's exactly how it's worded in Rule #12.2-b.2. There is no penalty for smoothing the bunker to care for the course.
I believe this was a penalty at one time. The rules have certainly gotten more player-friendly in recent times.
I don't recall which tournament it was in, but Jake Knapp was expecting a penalty for touching the sand with his club on a practice swing, but he was not testing the sand, and it didn't improve his stance or lie, so no penalty was given.
No comments:
Post a Comment