Let’s start by getting another Rule clear – You are not allowed to ground your club behind your ball before playing a stroke if your ball is in a bunker.
Rule 12.2b(1) deals with instances where touching the sand in a bunker results in a penalty. One of those instances is touching the sand with a club in the area right in front or right behind the ball.
That means if you ground your club in the sand behind the ball in a bunker, even if you touch the sand as you take the club away on your backswing, you have broken Rule 12.2b(1) and will receive the general penalty of two shots in stroke play or loss of hole in match play.
You are not allowed to ground your club in a bunker, but what about on the lip of the bunker?
Let’s start with the definition of bunker in the Rules. In the definitions, a bunker is “a specially prepared area of sand, which is often a hollow from which turf or soil was removed."
The definitions go on to say which areas are not part of a bunker. The first of these is – “A lip, wall or face at the edge of a prepared area and consisting of soil, grass, stacked turf or artificial materials.”
So, if your ball is on the lip, it is not in the bunker. But, according to Rule 12.1, your ball is in the bunker if any part of it touches sand on the ground inside the edge of the bunker.
If then, your ball is only partially on the lip but half of it is actually within the bunker, your ball is deemed as being in the bunker. In that instance, you cannot ground the club behind the ball.
If your ball is completely on the lip – if no part of it is touching sand within the edge of the bunker – then it is in the general area and you would be able to ground the club behind the ball.
But what if the lip of the bunker is sandy from sand that has been shifted from the bunker by play or footfall? Does that prevent you from being allowed to ground the club?
To answer that, we need to go back to the definitions and the list of things that are not part of a bunker. In there you will find – “sand that spilled over or is outside the edge of a prepared area” is not part of a bunker.
If your ball is completely on the grassy lip of a bunker and it’s sandy with sand that has spilled over from the bunker – it is classed as being in the general area and you can ground your club.
So, can you ground your club on the grassy, sandy lip of a bunker? Yes – as long as no part of your ball is touching the sand within the edge of the bunker, you are in the general area and can ground the club.
