What do the rules say for taking the shakes of practice from a bunker you are not in?
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Golf rules are complicated! Thankfully, we have guru. our Guy rules know the front book to get back. Do you have a question? He has all the answers.
I’ve heard that if your ball is in a bunker, you can go to another bunker to get practical shakes that touch sand. But I interpret regulation 12.2b as a sense that all bunkers are just as important. True? – Roy Shin, via email
Guy Guy is firmly set to think that “going bunker in bunker” should strictly refer to the terrible game of someone’s sand than hopscotch between traps to try the surface. But none of us make the rules, Roy, we just have to play from them.
While there was a time when there was a specific clause to test “similar risks” that restriction and terminology have gone to the hickory axis.
Rule 12.2b applies to the bunker in which the ball stands, so nothing in the rules forbids a practical swing in a nearby bunker, similar – except the annoyance of other players and course maintenance workers.
For more bunker guidelines from our guru, read in…
Guy Guy Guy: Can you use a tee to prove the depth of bunker before you hit?
The guy rules
My ball in a Greenside bunker was held by a robbery so as not to roll over the slope at the bottom of the bunker. I suggested to my partners playing for me to raise the robbery, which would let the ball roll at the bottom of the bunker. After all, this is what would have done so if Rake hadn’t been there. Thoughts? – Bruce Gardner, Springs, South Africa
Sounds reasonable, bruce … only this is not the right procedure.
There is no penalty for removing the rocket and causing the ball to move in the process. However, you are required to replace the ball in its original place, according to the rules 15.2 and 9.4. If the ball does not stay on rest after trying twice, then under the 14.2e regulation you will find the nearest place where it would stay at rest, not closer to the hole and in the same bunker.
Gravity rules and golf rules are not always one and the same.
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