Bunkers - should they be consistent

[MashieNiblick]

Likewise, you are permitted to take your stance, so any info from that is allowed -though I believe that's the reason you are not allowed to change your club after you have done so.

Did you mean the "not"?

Decision 13-4/26 Taking Stance in Bunker and Then Changing Clubs confirms that you can change clubs after traking your stance.

"Rule 13-3 allows a player to place his feet firmly in taking his stance in a bunker or elsewhere. There is nothing in the Rules to prohibit changing clubs or taking a stance twice in a bunker."

I have done this many times, especially from fairway bunkers when I suddenly realise I'm not Seve, and I put the 3 wood back and take the 9 iron.

In relation to raking the bunker after playing from it but before dropping back in it, I confess I wasn't too sure on this but checking it out it is quite correct that this is allowed. Decision 13-4/37 Ball Played from Bunker Is Out of Bounds or Lost; Player Tests Condition of Bunker or Smooths Footprints Before Dropping Another Ball in Bunker, confirms that it isn't against the Rules to do this;

"The prohibitions in Rule 13-4 apply only when the player's ball is in the hazard or when it has been lifted from a hazard and may be dropped or placed in the hazard. In this case, the player's ball has been played from the hazard rather than lifted.

Furthermore, Exception 2 under Rule 13-4 allows a player, after playing his ball out of a hazard, to smooth sand or soil in the hazard without restriction. This right overrides any conflicting provisions in other Rules, including Rule 13-2."

The key distinction is between whether the ball has been lifted (no raking allowed) or played (raking allowed).

Makes sense as you might play from the bunker and rake it and only discover later that your ball is lost or OOB so you have to drop back in the bunker. An additional penalty at that point for having done the right thing and raked the bunker after playing the ball would not really be justified.

And in response to the OP. Yes it would be nice if bunkers were consistent and to that extent in fairness they should be. I'm sure they are for the Tour guys. All that lovely crushed marble they play from. No wonder they are so good. But the fact is at our level they mostly aren't and we have to just accept and get on with it. Same with inconsistent greens and patchy fairways. We are only playing for fun after all.

 

[SwingsitlikeHogan]

Yes it would be nice if bunkers were consistent and to that extent in fairness they should be.

Why? for example we don't expect all areas of first cut rough around the course to play consistently - well I don't. Some areas the rough may be slightly longer than others, it can be growing and lying in different directions, and the grass type itself can be quite different.

 

[Foxholer]

Did you mean the "not"?

Decision 13-4/26 Taking Stance in Bunker and Then Changing Clubs confirms that you can change clubs after traking your stance.

"Rule 13-3 allows a player to place his feet firmly in taking his stance in a bunker or elsewhere. There is nothing in the Rules to prohibit changing clubs or taking a stance twice in a bunker."

I have done this many times, especially from fairway bunkers when I suddenly realise I'm not Seve, and I put the 3 wood back and take the 9 iron.

Yikes! And 13-4/24 Also implies I've been restricting my play with a 'myth'. I've never 'dug in' until I've decided o the club to use - though I know you can take the whole bag into the bunker with you! Slightly strange that you can't simply touch the surface with hands/fingers but can grind your way down with feet - to take your stance - before deciding which club to use. Though it does mke it pretty black/white I guess and the stance doesn't guarantee what's under the ball!

 

[SwingsitlikeHogan]

Yikes! And 13-4/24 Also implies I've been restricting my play with a 'myth'. I've never 'dug in' until I've decided o the club to use - though I know you can take the whole bag into the bunker with you! Slightly strange that you can't simply touch the surface with hands/fingers but can grind your way down with feet - to take your stance - before deciding which club to use. Though it does mke it pretty black/white I guess and the stance doesn't guarantee what's under the ball!

Seems logical if you think about it. You can't determine the shot you'll take until you get a feel for the stance you'd take. But once you've taken that stance you obviously have to be able to reject the option of playing that shot. Key to this would be that any mess you make in a bunker in working out the shot you are to play cannot be tidyed up until you have played out of the bunker.

So dig your feet in deep when sorting things out if you wish, but if you don't play that shot and you don't get out of the bunker you risk your ball ending up in the footprints and excavations made by your size 10s.

 

[Foxholer]

Seems logical if you think about it. You can't determine the shot you'll take until you get a feel for the stance you'd take. But once you've taken that stance you obviously have to be able to reject the option of playing that shot. Key to this would be that any mess you make in a bunker in working out the shot you are to play cannot be tidyed up until you have played out of the bunker.

So dig your feet in deep when sorting things out if you wish, but if you don't play that shot and you don't get out of the bunker you risk your ball ending up in the footprints and excavations made by your size 10s.

Yes and No imo. for the reasons posted earlier.

If I'm playing to get out of a bunker, I always expect to do so. Very rare that I don't, though the result isn't always great.

 

[SwingsitlikeHogan]

If I'm playing to get out of a bunker, I always expect to do so. Very rare that I don't, though the result isn't always great.

Very rare that you don't get out...? Blimey - wish I had your bunker technique

Well I always get out - eventually....

 

[Foxholer]

Very rare that you don't get out...? Blimey - wish I had your bunker technique

Well I always get out - eventually....

Another 'benefit' of playing links courses - learn or suffer! Driveable (occasionally) but protected 1st gave plenty of practice too!

Seems like you need to sort your bunker play out though - not just because they are different styles//varying! When did you last do any bunker practice?

 

[SwingsitlikeHogan]

Another 'benefit' of playing links courses - learn or suffer! Driveable (occasionally) but protected 1st gave plenty of practice too!

Seems like you need to sort your bunker play out though - not just because they are different styles//varying! When did you last do any bunker practice?

My bunker play has always been very good and other than v diff ones I always got out. Then we started the bunker improvement programme and i was stuffed. I just could not work out how to play out of the new sand. Then someone on here pointed me to the a Luke Donald bunker shot video on Youtube - and that got me thinking - and checking. And then The Open. I quickly spotted that the Muirfield sand looked very like our new sand - so I watched very carefully how they were played - and I very quickly spotted what I as doing wrong and also what I was not doing. Now that I have put correcive actions into practice my bunker play is tip top.

And so the point of my OP. I was moaning like bu****y about the new sand - saying that my bunker technique had done me fine for x yrs, why should I have to pay for a lesson when ...blah blah blah.

What I didn't realise was that over time I had adapted my bunker play to fit well with our old bunkers - though accuracy and consistency out of them wasn't that great. But I didn't realise my technique - though adequate - was poor. But as I was only really playing my own track I never realsied it. Give me a bunker with different sand and my technique was utterly hopeless and useless. And that is what the new sand exposed.

Now my technique works for all of our sand conditions and I am much more accurate and consistent than even when I could always get out - though I still use previous technique when sand conditions are very thin.

 

[HawkeyeMS]

Very rare that you don't get out...? Blimey - wish I had your bunker technique

Well I always get out - eventually....

Picking up doesn't count

 

[Robobum]

Now my technique works for all of our sand conditions and I am much more accurate and consistent than even when I could always get out - though I still use previous technique when sand conditions are very thin.

You'd be perfect as our greens chairman SLH!!!

Some of the junk our greenkeeper calls bunkers would stretch your defence though

Watching your ball roll gently into a bunker and still plug is hard to defend regardless of it being a hazard or not