Flags Out????

[Ridgeman]

Bunkers are supposed to be a hazard. I'd say we should play it as it lies, even without rakes.

Smooth the sand with your feet, job done.

Your lucky to have sand in your bunkers. Some of ours have something roughly the same colour as sand but acts more as cement when wet. The concept of smooth would require trowel rather than rake.

 

[KenL]

Bunkers are supposed to be a hazard. I'd say we should play it as it lies, even without rakes.

Smooth the sand with your feet, job done.

Let's see if you still say that after landing in someone's poor attempt at smoothing the sand, take three to get out to lose out of a medal by a stroke. ?

 

[RichA]

Our bunkers seem to be freshly sanded, but full of deep footprints that the ball always ends up in, making it more of a hazard than is probably intended. There's little evidence of anyone thinking of the next person to come along. A nightmare for a less skilled player like me.
Picking, raking with your personal plastic mini rake and dropping from shoulder height would seem like a sensible solution, but I suspect that would need a rule of some sort.

 

[BiMGuy]

Let's see if you still say that after landing in someone's poor attempt at smoothing the sand, take three to get out to lose out of a medal by a stroke. ?

That happened even when we had rakes.

There is always the option to take an unplayable.

 

[KenL]

That happened even when we had rakes.

There is always the option to take an unplayable.

And thin it back into the bunker, no thanks.

 

[Sports_Fanatic]

The rake attachments are quite neat so fine but I still struggle to see how they're a better solution than the existing bunker rakes staying in and people just putting hand sanitiser in their bag. Less plastic waste, more functionality of sanitising hands not only on raking but also after rounds for example. If people are responsible enough to buy, carry and rake a bunker then they should be responsible enough to quickly sanitise after touching objects. Would allow for ball washers and compressed air to be opened given benches are now I think.

Minor though, we're playing so that's great. Just thinking of refining things for next stage of easing.

 

[Robster59]

It is a mystery to me why golfers in the UK are doing this. Just tell people "No, it is ridiculous. You have not thought this through and we are not going to be dictated to or have our freedoms limited by people with no evidence to back up their assertion." I live in the third worse hit state in the USA and there was never a golf ban, here. People went through a phase of not touching the flag but people pretty quickly realized there are far more likely ways to catch COVID then touching a metal pole in the middle of the countryside very briefly.

Do you not think there might be a correlation with the rate of infection and this type of attitude?

 

[Robster59]

Amazon do a rake head that clips in your grip, clubs could make these mandatory and sort that problem

 

[Deleted Member 1156]

More plastic in the world, not a good solution. I have no issues with preferred lies in the bunker.

No problem with personal rakes, not like it's disposable plastic that people are throwing away.

 

[Robster59]

The one thing I find strange is that EG have said that PSI’s can now be used but you can’t touch flags?‍

We don't use the PSI at our club. Everything is done via app.

 

[sunshine]

Looks to me like the world of golf is crying out for a robot rake that will sort out the bunkers without any human contact.

Here's A Robot That Will Mow Your Lawn, Rake Your Leaves, And Shovel Your Snow (forbes.com)

 

[Orikoru]

I would not be buying any kind of rake that sits in my bag. I can only envision a load of sand dropping it and into the bag and all over my grips. Forget that. Maybe if you could fix a rake head to the end of your umbrella.

 

[USER1999]

Picking, raking with your personal plastic mini rake and dropping from shoulder height would seem like a sensible solution, but I suspect that would need a rule of some sort.

Drop from shoulder height into some of our bunkers and you would lose the ball in 8 inch deep sand.

 

[Deleted member 15344]

We don't use the PSI at our club. Everything is done via app.

What about before Covid and for people that don’t have a smart phone ?

 

[Robster59]

What about before Covid and for people that don’t have a smart phone ?

We used the screen before Covid and probably will afterwards. They can submit them on their PC when they get home if they have one. Those who cannot do so can still submit a card but the club requests this to be avoided if possible. All scores are still marked on a card and then these are put into a box at the end of the round. How those cards are handled I am afraid I don't know. With gloves I would hope.

 

[KenL]

No problem with personal rakes, not like it's disposable plastic that people are throwing away.

When proper rakes come back they might throw them away.

 

[Smiffy]

Bunkers are supposed to be a hazard. I'd say we should play it as it lies, even without rakes.

Smooth the sand with your feet, job done.

Yeah, the pro's would love that....

 

[Robster59]

When proper rakes come back they might throw them away.

Handle is metal, head is plastic. Into the various recycle bin it goes. But I won't bin it. I'm a hoarder!

 

[Robster59]

Drop from shoulder height into some of our bunkers and you would lose the ball in 8 inch deep sand.

Drop from shoulder height and you're not dropping it correctly!

 

[sunshine]

When proper rakes come back they might throw them away.

Best off hanging on to the mini rake when restrictions end. You'll need it when we have to deal with COVID-21.