Rules Refresher – Unplayable Ball In Bunker

ast month, we looked at the unplayable ball rule. This allows you three relief options under penalty of one stroke should you find your ball in an unplayable spot, or indeed any spot on the course where you decide it might be unwise to attempt to play it, other than when you are in a penalty area.

This time, we’re looking specifically at what to do when you decide to deem your ball unplayable in a bunker. Here, the Rules allow you an extra option over and above the three options you have elsewhere on the course.

Let’s just recap on those three options under penalty of one stroke before introducing the fourth option that is only available to you in bunkers. You may go back to where you last played from under stroke and distance; you may drop as far back as you like on a line that extends back through where your ball is lying from the flagstick; or you may drop within two club-lengths of the spot where the ball is lying, but not nearer the hole. When taking unplayable relief for a

Lball in a bunker under the last two of these options, you must drop the ball in the bunker.

The fourth relief option for bunkers was introduced in 2019 for various reasons, among them an acknowledgement that bunkers, and particularly steep-faced ones, can be a real problem for some golfers. Also, going back to where you last played from as the only relief option outside the bunker is both time-consuming and generally not particularly appealing.

In addition, once you had made a stroke at a ball in a bunker previously, there were then no options under the pre-2019 Rules allowing relief outside the bunker as stroke-and-distance would now mean dropping in the same bunker. If the result of your first attempt had left the ball tight against the back lip of the bunker, your prospects would now be pretty unappetising.

The fourth option, which has been available to players since January 2019, is an extension of the dropping back on line option that allows you to now take such a drop outside the bunker too. The additional cost of coming outside of the

“Many will be relieved there is now a fourth option, especially if some bunkers fill them with dread”

bunker, if you like, is that if you choose to exercise this option, it will be a twostroke penalty, rather than the onestroke penalty which you pay to proceed under the other three choices.

While many golfers will always be looking to have a go regardless of the situation they face, some will be relieved to know that this fourth option is now available, especially if certain bunkers fill them with dread.