Here’s a scenario that a reader wrote to us about to query the correct course of action under The Rules of Golf.
Playing in a club competition, her playing partner hit a good shot into a par-3 hole that rolled just through the back of the green and onto the fringe.
On reaching her ball she could see there was sand on the fringe directly in her line between the ball (also on the fringe) and the cup.
Absentmindedly, she crouched down and swept the sand away with her hand.
Our reader wondered, was she allowed to do that? Should it have been a penalty? Our reader didn’t tell us whether she called a penalty upon her playing partner, she simply asked what the correct Ruling would be.
Well, the answer is that – Yes, it was a penalty to brush away that sand on the fringe.
In fact, the action of brushing away sand improved the condition affecting her stroke and she had broken Rule 8.1a and incurred the general penalty of two strokes in stroke play. In match play, brushing away that sand on the fringe would have meant she lost the hole.
Sand is not considered a loose impediment. A loose impediment is defined in the Rules as any unattached natural object. But, under the definitions, sand is specifically mentioned as something that is not classed a loose impediment.
Loose impediments can be removed anywhere on the course without a penalty. If our reader’s partner had removed a stone or a stick that was in her line on the fringe, there would have been no penalty.
But as sand is not a loose impediment, removing it is in breach of Rule 8.1a and it incurs a penalty.
There is an exception when removing sand is not a penalty. That is when there is sand on the putting green. Under Rule 13.1c, a player may remove sand and loose soil from the putting green with no penalty.
There is another exception when sand might be brushed away from the fringe without penalty:
If our reader’s partner had played her ball to the fringe and there had been no sand on her line when her ball came to rest. Say another playing partner had then found the bunker beside the green, played a shot out and splashed sand from the trap and onto our reader’s partner’s line – she would have been entitled to remove it.
That is because, under Rule 8.1d, she would have been entitled to restore conditions that had been worsened after her ball came to rest.
But, in this instance, the conditions were in place when her ball came to rest, so she was not allowed to brush away that sand. She should have incurred the general penalty.
