Rules Ball Embedded In Bunker Face
Chris Wallace, Rules manager at The R& A, looks back on a difficult situation that Ian Poulter found himself in during a very wet and windy round at the Renaissance Club for the ASI Scottish Open.
Taking on a long shot out of a fairway bunker, Poulter failed to get enough elevation, causing his ball to embed in the ground above the bunker lip. Fortunately, the Rules allowed him to take relief without penalty and he was able to take a drop and play from a still very awkward, but much easier, stance and lie. However, the ruling did cause some confusion for a number of viewers.
The question of relief for an embedded golf ball in a bunker face is one which crops up fairly often. Most of the misunderstandings arise from players not quite knowing what is considered to be part of a bunker, and also from some lingering confusion with the old Rules concerning relief for an embedded ball.
Under the previous Rules (changed in January 2019), unless extended by a Local Rule, relief for an embedded ball was restricted to situations where a ball was embedded in a closely-mown area (an area cut to fairway height or less). If the player was entitled to relief, they were required to drop the ball as near as possible to where it was embedded. This changed significantly in 2019.
Rule 16.3 now allows a player to take relief for a ball embedded anywhere in the general area, except when embedded in sand. The ‘general area’ is any area of the course that isn’t the teeing area or putting green of the hole being played, any penalty area or any bunker. A bunker is a specially prepared area of sand, but it’s important to note that a lip, wall or face of that prepared area, whether soil, grass, stacked turf or other artificial materials, is not actually part of the bunker.
Having to play a ball plugged in soft or wet ground is not considered to be part of the normal challenge of playing the golf course, whether in the fairway or the rough. Rule 16.3 now allows free relief by dropping a ball within a one club-length relief area, no nearer the hole, at the spot right behind where the ball is embedded.
In Poulter’s situation, the European Tour Local Rules do actually prohibit free relief from a stacked turf face above a bunker, but because the spot where his ball was embedded was not made from stacked turf and was just above the bunker face, it was embedded in the general area. He was therefore entitled to take free relief, taking full advantage of being able to find a spot within his relief area where his ball was playable.