Rules Q

[vig]

I called a penalty on myself yesterday that neither my other 3 in fourball or pro was sure on

I hit my tee shot into bunker and whilst waiting for my partners to play their shots, I picked up the rake, leant on it and then flicked some stones from the sand without thinking. I then entered the bunker and realised what I had done.
I explained to my playing partners but none of them was sure it was an infringement.
I made a good up and down but told my marker to leave it and we would check with the pro at the clubhouse.
He wasn't sure and checked through the ROG book but couldn't find it.
I thought it was a two shot penalty for testing the sand and this is what was marked eventually.

Is it?

 

[jammydodger]

You used the rake to flick the stones out of the bunker ?

 

[rickg]

No penalty unless you were intentionally trying to test the surface which in your case sounds like you were'nt.
It's OK to remove stones as long as this is in the local rules, which at most clubs it is.

 

[vig]

I wasn't paying too much attention to what i was doing tbh, but leant forward and flicked the stones out with the teeth of the rake.

 

[The_LHC]

There's a few points here:

1) it IS illegal to remove stones from a bunker, unless a local rule states otherwise (I didn't know that, I thought you could to be honest!),
2) raking a bunker is not illegal, however doing so BEFORE playing your shot might be (it isn't if someone else is in the same bunker, plays their shot first and disturbs the sand around your ball) BUT,
3) it is not illegal to TOUCH the sand in a bunker with a rake before playing your shot, it is only forbidden to touch the sand with your club or your hand (13-4b)

So from that, using the rake to touch the sand in the bunker is not a problem but it may or may not be a problem to remove the stones, it depends on the club your playing at.

 

[vig]

In the end I gave myself a two shot penalty.
Rather that than a DQ. Would have been out of the reckoning anyway.
Didn't a pro go from bunker to bunker last year and got a penalty before the R & A changed the ruling

 

[rickg]

It was Stewart Cink.

Cink Incident
Cink’s ball, incidentally, wasn’t even in the bunker; he had to stand in the bunker to hit his ball which was just outside the bunker. He hit that shot into a greenside bunker. His caddie then raked the bunker he had been standing in to smooth his footprints. It was ruled that Cink had breached Rule 13-4a by testing the conditions of a hazard when your ball lies in a similar hazard (a player is penalized for actions taken by his caddie). Cink was not aware of this rule, so he signed a scorecard that did not include the two-stroke penalty he had incurred. The penalty for signing an incorrect scorecard –for a score that is lower than what you shot– is disqualification, and Cink was therefore disqualified.

Here’s an interesting sidelight: If Cink’s caddie had not raked the trap, Cink would have been fined by the PGA; if Cink returned to rake the trap after playing his ball out of the greenside bunker, he might have been penalized for undue delay; if a following golfer hit a ball that landed in Cink’s footprint in the sand, that golfer would face an unfairly difficult shot. The rule was a bit of a Catch-22 for the golfer, so it would seem that the golf gurus made a wise decision to re-interpret the rule.

 

[vig]

Testing the condition of the hazard is what I thought I had unwittingly (sp) done.

Where's jez when you need him?