When Is A Ball Considered To Be In A Bunker?

Usually, it’s pretty obvious whether or not a ball is in a bunker, but sometimes uncertainty can creep as was the case for Alejandro Tosti in round three of the PGA Tour’s Myrtle Beach Classic in May when his ball appeared to be embedded in a bunker face. Tosti took to Instagram to voice his displeasure at his ball being ruled in the bunkeras part of it was adjuged to be touching the sand, thus denying him embedded ball relief.

So, where are the boundaries? A bunker is defined as a “specially prepared area of sand, which is often a hollow from which turf or soil was removed”. The definitions section of the Rules then goes on to confirm what is not part of a bunker – i.e., a lip, wall or face at the edge of a prepared area and consisting of soil, grass, stacked turf or artificial materials – and that “soil or any growing or attached natural object inside the edge of a prepared area (such as grass, bushes or trees)” is not part of the bunker.

Rule 12.1 says that a ball is in a bunker when any part of it “touches sand on the ground inside the edge of the bunker”. It also states that your ball is in the bunker when it’s inside the edge where sand would normally be, meaning that even when the sand has been washed or blown away, your ball is still in the bunker even if not physically lying in or on sand.

Conversely, what about sand that has spilled over or is outside the edge of the prepared area as can often be the case on some courses? That is not considered part of a bunker, so any in-or-out decision must be based on where the edge indicates that sand would normally be.

Of course, it’s important to know whether or not your ball is in a bunker because different Rules apply in different areas of the course. For example, if your ball is in the bunker, then under the unplayable ball rule (Rule 19), back-on-the-line and lateral relief for a one-stroke penalty must be within the bunker, with the additional option of dropping back-on-the-line outside the bunker costing a player an extra penalty stroke. And in Tosti’s case, it was pivotal as it dictated whether or not he would get free relief for an embedded ball as there is no such relief in bunkers.