Rules - bunkers. Testing the surface.

[markTHEblake]

Yep this ones for you mate

Under Rule 13-4 there are a couple of decisions that support what I said.

Decision 13-4/21

Question
A player's ball lies in a bunker. He casually throws a rake into the bunker for use after his stroke. The rake does not move his ball or improve the lie of the ball. Does the player incur a penalty?

Answer
Placing a rake in a bunker is permissible. In this case, throwing the rake into the bunker was the equivalent of placing it. If the rake had moved the ball, the player would incur a penalty of one stroke for causing his ball to move; and the ball would have to be replaced – Rule 18-2a.


Decision 13-4/36

Question
A plays a stroke in a bunker but he hits too far behind the ball and fails to extricate it from the bunker. He smooths irregularities in the area where the stroke was played. Exception 2 to Rule 13-4 permits smoothing provided that the lie of the ball is not improved and the player is not assisted in his subsequent play of the hole. The smoothing does not improve the new lie of the ball. However, B claims that the smoothing assisted A in his subsequent play of the hole because it constituted testing the consistency of the sand. Is B right?

Answer
No. A was able to test the consistency of the sand during his first stroke in the bunker, and he would gain no additional information by smoothing the sand at the place where that stroke was played.
No claim by B that A's smoothing of the sand assisted him in his subsequent play of the hole would be valid unless, as a result of a subsequent stroke in the bunker, A's ball rolled back into the smoothed area.

[AndyP]

What are we talking about here? Did something happen in the Southport Classic?
I guess I could go and check that thread first.