Can you practice in an adjacent bunker to your ball ?

[Skytot]

I’ve just watched a video with Golf pro Gary Martin . Where he says you can go in a near by bunker ( not where your actual ball is ) and take practice swings hitting the sand . My mate who is pretty clued on on rules disagrees with him .

 

[Colin L]

Yes you can. The restrictions to touching sand in a bunker set out in Rule 12 apply only to a bunker your ball is in. Be sure you don't hold things up and cause an unreasonable delay.

 

[Steven Rules]

Old Decision 13-4/0.5 (pre-2019) unambiguously prohibited touching the sand with a club when making a practice swing in a similar bunker. As Colin has said, the current Rules only prohibit touching the sand with a practice swing in the same bunker the ball is in.

 

[BiMGuy]

I think we’d need to be having a chat about rule 5.6.

 

[Colin L]

I think we’d need to be having a chat about rule 5.6.

Just don't take too long over it.

 

[clubchamp98]

I think that should be changed.
green staff have enough to do without letting players practice in bunkers.
so many lazy golfers don’t rake them.

What do you learn hitting sand in a different bunker?
it might be dry and the one your in gets the run off the green so completely different.

 

[rulie]

I think we’d need to be having a chat about rule 5.6.

Why’s that?

 

[BiMGuy]

Why’s that?

Because it’s unnecessary to walk into a bunker, take a practice swing and then have to rake the bunker, possibly clean your club etc.

To me that is an unreasonable delay.

 

[rulie]

And if it’s not delaying anything or anybody?

 

[SwingsitlikeHogan]

And if it’s not delaying anything or anybody?

Is it not delaying the progression to completion of the round?

Beggars the question whether or not rules penalising undue delay relate only to delaying the play of others, or whether you are not permitted to unduly delay your own round irrespective of others.

 

[Imurg]

A player takes one practice swing in an adjacent bunker, rakes said bunker and then plays his shot.
Another player has a pre-shot routine that lasts 30 seconds on each shot..
Who delays play more..?

 

[Backsticks]

EVERYTHING anyone does other than swinging at the ball slows down play. Putting on and off gloves, lasering, kneeling to survey a putt, walking up a bit to see the lie of the green, etc. It all adds. Its why the the pace of play has decreased consistently. Anything can be criticised if you want to play the slows-down-play-card. Thats too easy. If we want to ban things on that basis, then you have to ban all the superfluous stuff that has been added over the last 30 years, not just cherry pick the ones you dont do yourself, and complain about others doing them. If someone wants a practice swing in an adjacent bunker, that their choice.

 

[Steven Rules]

I think we’d need to be having a chat about rule 5.6.

Ok. Let's have a chat about 5.6.

To me, pre-shot routines (including practice swings in other bunkers) would fall under the heading of 5.6b 'prompt pace of play' which covers the time taken to 'prepare for and make each stroke'. While there are recommendations for how to achieve a prompt pace of play, there is no penalty for a breach of 5.6b unless the Committee has adopted a Local Rule setting a pace of play policy.

The 'unreasonable delay' part of the Rule (5.6a), which some have latched onto in this thread, covers a very different set of examples - seeking help from a referee, becoming injured or ill, stopping to get food or drink, consulting with others to determine whether to play out a hole after a normal suspension, returning to another part of the course to retrieve a lost club, searching longer than three minutes for a ball - and doesn't seem relevant to the discussion here.

 

[Steven Rules]

Because it’s unnecessary to walk into a bunker, take a practice swing and then have to rake the bunker, possibly clean your club etc.

To me that is an unreasonable delay.

Is it not delaying the progression to completion of the round?

Beggars the question whether or not rules penalising undue delay relate only to delaying the play of others, or whether you are not permitted to unduly delay your own round irrespective of others.

There's a lot of (unnecessary) negative energy being spent and a lot of theorising around this 'practice swing in another bunker' scenario. It has only been permitted for 4.5 years and, in that time, I have never seen it happen. I am not going to use up too much emotion worrying about it.

 

[BiMGuy]

There's a lot of (unnecessary) negative energy being spent and a lot of theorising around this 'practice swing in another bunker' scenario. It has only been permitted for 4.5 years and, in that time, I have never seen it happen. I am not going to use up too much emotion worrying about it.

Where is the negative energy.

Just because people are asking questions or taking a different view doesn’t mean there is negativity or require you to use up any emotion. Whatever that actually means.

Can we not ask questions or challenge an opinion now without people getting upset?

 

[Boscoe55]

To me the bigger issue for this question, at least around greenside bunkers, is whether it is good for golf to splash greens with more sand from practice swings.

 

[IanMcC]

If he takes longer than 40 seconds doing it, 5.6 should apply. Otherwise, fine, but unethical.

 

[Crow]

There's a lot of (unnecessary) negative energy being spent and a lot of theorising around this 'practice swing in another bunker' scenario. It has only been permitted for 4.5 years and, in that time, I have never seen it happen. I am not going to use up too much emotion worrying about it.

That leads me to ask why the rule was ever changed in the first place?

Most people understood the old rule and happily got on with it, neither you nor I have ever seen anyone do it since it was introduced, it's just created another area of discord in golfers' minds.

Some recent changes to the rules have seemed to me like tinkering with them for the sake of it rather than anything useful.

 

[Mel Smooth]

I actually don't get the obsession with slow play - some groups will be inherently faster than others, some slower, but as long as a round is completed in 4 to 4 and a half hours (Fourball) then is it really an issue.

Just because some people can play 18 in 3 hours, doesn't mean everybody can.

Watched the video the OP mentions myself and mentioned it to a few guys at the club yesterday - none of them were aware of this rule, but it's one worth knowing especially if you're playing a course you're not familiar with or after some rain atc.

 

[IanM]

I agree. The issue is rarely "elapsed time" it is, "is anyone else having to stand and wait for you to stop messing about?" AND if there is, are you keeping up with those in front?

But if course, some folk couldn't give a monkeys about that.