Dear Linda,
My wife yesterday played a stroke competition after a very
rainy morning.
Her ball landed in a bunker covered with 80% water. The only
20% sandy place left was nearer to the hole. She decided to play outside the
bunker. Her fellow competitor said OK.
She chipped in a birdie.
At the next tee the competitor told her that she actually
was not allowed to play outside the bunker. My wife told her that casual water
exists also in bunkers.
Was she right or not?
The competitor agreed with my wife’s statement, but was she
right?
Lou, a Frenchman living in Pakistan
Dear Lou,
Casual water does exist in bunkers, but players are not
entitled to free relief if they drop outside the bunker.
Here is the Rule:
• In order to get free relief, the player must drop in the
bunker, no closer to the hole.
• If there is no place to drop in the bunker that is not
closer to the hole, the player must drop outside the bunker and add one penalty stroke to her score.
Draw an imaginary line from the hole through the spot where the ball lay in the
bunker and drop anywhere on that line behind the bunker [Rule 25-1b (ii)]. This
is the line that I now refer to as the “flagline.”
The player also has the option to play a ball under stroke
and distance, meaning she would add one penalty stroke to her score and play a
ball from the spot where she hit her previous shot.
Linda
Copyright © 2016 Linda Miller. All rights reserved.
