Rule 12: Playing from the Bunker
What this is about
Rule 12 covers the bunker, a prepared sand pit. You'll learn when your ball is in it and what you can and can't do with the sand.
What you need to do
Your ball is in the bunker as soon as it touches the sand, or lies on bare ground where the sand has washed away.
- You may remove leaves, twigs, a rake, or a bottle.
- You may also dig your feet in firmly.
- Don't press your club into the sand to test how it lies.
- No practice swing where your club touches the sand, and don't touch the sand on your backswing or right in front of or behind your ball either.
- Doing so costs the general penalty: two penalty strokes.
- Is your ball out of the bunker? Rake it smooth afterward.
Common mistake
Taking a practice swing just to feel how the sand lies. As soon as your club touches the sand, that's a penalty.
Example
During your practice swing in the bunker, your club touches the sand just behind the ball. Two penalty strokes, because you tested the sand.
Practise this rule with real exam questions in the free app.
12.1 When the ball is in a bunker
Your ball is in a bunker if any part of it touches sand within the edge of the bunker, or lies within that edge on ground where sand normally belongs. If it lies within the edge only on grass or soil and touches no sand, it's not in the bunker.
12.2 Playing a ball in a bunker
12.2a Restrictions on touching the sand
Before you make a stroke at a ball in a bunker, you may not touch the sand with your hand, club, rake, or other object to test how it lies. You also may not touch the sand:
- In the area right in front of or behind the ball
- During a practice swing
- In your backswing for the stroke
This is allowed:
- Digging in your feet to take your stance
- Smoothing the sand for the care of the course, as long as this doesn't improve your lie, stance, or swing
- Placing clubs or other items in the bunker
- Leaning on a club to rest or keep your balance
- Walking normally in and out of the bunker
12.2b Restrictions on loose impediments and movable obstructions
Before you play a ball in a bunker, you may remove loose impediments (such as leaves and twigs) and movable obstructions (such as a rake or a bottle). The sand may be touched or moved normally in doing so. Note the restriction: if your ball moves because you removed a loose impediment, you get one penalty stroke and replace the ball. With a movable obstruction, that's free of penalty, you simply replace the ball.
12.3 Specific rules for relief in bunkers
For a ball in a bunker, separate relief rules apply for an abnormal course condition (Rule 16.1c), a dangerous animal (Rule 16.2), and an unplayable ball (Rule 19.3). For an abnormal course condition, you take free relief within the bunker, or relief for one penalty stroke outside the bunker on the line straight back from the ball. Note: for an embedded ball, there's no free relief in a bunker, that only applies in the general area.
Practice questions about Rule 12
There are a few leaves next to your ball in the bunker. Are you allowed to remove them?
Answer: Yes, since 2019 you're allowed to remove loose impediments from a bunker
Since 2019 you're allowed to remove loose impediments (leaves, twigs, stones) from a bunker (Rule 12.2a). Careful though: if your ball moves as a result, you get one penalty stroke and must replace it.
Your ball comes to rest in a spot where it's partly on the grass and partly touching the sand of a bunker. Which area is your ball in?
Answer: The bunker, because part of the ball touches the sand
If any part of the ball touches the sand of the bunker, the ball is in the bunker (Rule 12.1). It doesn't matter that most of the ball is on the grass.
Are you allowed to touch the sand in a bunker with your club before your stroke?
Answer: It's forbidden to touch the sand with your club right in front of or behind the ball, during a practice swing, or during your backswing
In a bunker, you may not touch the sand with your club right in front of or behind the ball, during a practice swing, or in your backswing. Deliberately testing the sand isn't allowed either. You may, however, remove loose impediments, search for your ball, dig in your feet, and rake the bunker (Rule 12.2b).
During your backswing in a bunker, your club touches the sand. Is that allowed?
Answer: No, you get the general penalty (2 penalty strokes in stroke play)
Before making your stroke at a ball in a bunker, you're not allowed to touch the sand with your club, not even during the backswing and not even accidentally (Rule 12.2b). If you do, you get the general penalty: 2 penalty strokes in stroke play.
Your ball is in a bunker. You want to take a practice swing and touch the sand while doing so. What's the rule?
Answer: The general penalty: two penalty strokes in stroke play
In a bunker, you're not allowed to touch the sand with a practice swing (Rule 12.2b). That costs the general penalty: two penalty strokes in stroke play, or loss of hole in match play.