You’ve hit what you thought was a good drive and are wandering up the fairway expecting to have a relatively straightforward approach to the green.
But there’s no sign of your ball. Surely it couldn’t have reached the bunker… you thought it was out of range. But you’ve hit it so well that it’s rolled out and toppled just into the sand.
Unfortunately, as it’s only just made the trap, it’s ended close to the back leaving an awkward shot.
You assess the situation and decide you should be able to get out forwards. As you’re so far back from the lip you might even have a chance to reach the green.
You take your stance, have a last look and go for it. What you hadn’t accounted for was the grassy face at the back of the bunker.
As you swing the club away, it clips the grass on the face. It doesn’t do enough to stop your motion, and you carry on, playing the shot reasonably effectively to the front edge of the green.
It’s a good result, but have you incurred a penalty by hitting the grass face of the bunker on your backswing? Is a good shot going to be negated by an infringement of The Rules?
Well, it’s good news – No, there is no penalty. Under Rule 12.2b, there are only restrictions in touching sand in the bunker on your backswing.
If you had made a backswing and your club had clipped a lump of sand in the bunker on the way back you would have broken Rule 12.2 and would incur the general penalty of two strokes in stroke play and loss of hole in match play.
But if your club hits anything outside the bunker, including grass, on the backswing there is no penalty.
If you had stopped your swing because of hitting the grass face of the bunker, there would still be no penalty. You would be free to start your swing again and try to reassess the situation to make an action that didn’t strike the bunker face.
If you hit grass growing in the bunker on your backswing there would also be no penalty.
A bunker is defined as – A specially prepared area of sand, which is often a hollow from which turf or soil was removed.
The Rules are clear that the wall or face of the bunker – be it grass, soil or stacked turf, is not part of the bunker.
Any soil or growing material such as grass inside the bunker is not classed as the bunker.
When it comes to your backswing in a bunker, you will only receive a penalty if your clubhead touches sand in the bunker.
