Rules Column: Patti Daskalos

Rules of the Game:

How to deal with different conditions when it comes to bunkers

Last month’s article included information about allowed actions and permissions when your ball is in a bunker. I thought I would continue sharing information about bunker rules in general until I realized the weather is changing and many of us are digging out mudder golf shoes. Let’s focus instead on rules associated with conditions we all might experience in a bunker after a good rain – temporary water in a bunker.

Temporary water in a bunker is an abnormal course condition in which free relief is available when a player’s ball is in the temporary water in the bunker, or when the temporary water in the bunker physically interferes with the player’s area of intended stance or area of intended swing. As a reminder, the definition of temporary water is: “Any temporary accumulation of water on the surface of the ground that is not in a penalty area, which can be seen before or after the player takes a stance.”

The definition makes it clear that the water should be visible without the player excessively or repeatedly pressing down with their feet. Rules Officials usually remind players that it’s the “stance”, not the “dance” that we look at when determining if an area can be defined as temporary water. This means if you’ve had to repeatedly step on or dance in place to get surface water to appear—that is not temporary water. And if the ground is merely wet or soft it is not considered to be temporary water either.

When you have interference from temporary water in a bunker you have four options to continue play. You can play the ball as it lies, take free relief within the bunker with complete relief, or free relief within the bunker with maximum available relief, or take penalty relief outside the bunker.**  Consider the following scenarios:

    Tyler’s ball is in a bunker. There’s some temporary water in the bunker, and his ball is in about ½ inch of water. He’s allowed to take free relief, but if he drops a ball in the relief area, he will have a very awkward stance, with one foot in and one foot out of the bunker. He doesn’t want that, so he just opts to play the ball from where it lies.

Jax finds his ball in a bunker partially filled with temporary water. His ball is in about 3 inches of water. His nearest point of relief will put him in dry sand, so he opts to take free relief from the temporary water, drops the ball in the relief area in the dry sand, and plays on.

Ike’s ball is in a bunker in about 6 inches of temporary water. Part of the temporary water is quite deep and part of it is shallower. However, the configuration of the bunker and the amount of water make it impossible to find a dry patch of sand no nearer the hole to take relief. But Ike can take advantage of a free relief option available only in bunkers and on putting greens – maximum available relief. He finds a patch of water only about ½ inch deep. He drops a ball there and plays it.

CJ, however, has a bit of a problem. His ball is in temporary water in a bunker. But all of his options for relief in the bunker are in water that’s too deep to play from. Fortunately, the Rules give him another option, although with a price.          For one penalty stroke, he may take back-on-the-line relief, taking a ball outside the bunker, keeping the position of his ball at rest in bunker in line with the hole location. In taking back-on-the-line relief, CJ can go back on a line as far as he would like, dropping the ball on the line, in any part of the course. The ball can roll up to one club length away from where the ball strikes the ground in ANY direction (even towards the hole, but the ball must stay in the same area of the course where it first hit the ground).

When you encounter temporary water in bunkers, I hope all bunker shots turn out well! 

• I would always advise a player find their relief area prior to picking up a ball in play. If you pick up your ball in play, and then find out you don’t like your relief options or area, then you would incur a one stroke penalty to put your ball back.