Bunkers: what you may touch, and what you may not.

This page summarises Rule 12 of the 2023 Rules of Golf, in effect from 1 January 2023. The R&A says the next edition is due on 1 January 2028.

What a bunker is for

Rule 12 describes bunkers as specially prepared areas meant to test a player's ability to play a ball from sand. That purpose is why the Rule limits how you may touch the sand before you play.

When your ball is in a bunker

Under Rule 12.1, a ball is in a bunker when any part of it touches sand on the ground inside the bunker's edge. It also counts if it lies inside the edge on ground where sand would normally be, for example where wind or water has washed the sand away.

A ball that lies inside the edge but rests on soil, grass or other growing natural objects without touching sand is not in the bunker. Rule 2.2c adds that a ball touching both a bunker and the general area counts as in the bunker, and a ball touching both a penalty area and a bunker counts as in the penalty area.

What you may do before the stroke

Rule 12.2a lets you remove loose impediments and movable obstructions from a bunker, and touching the sand reasonably while doing so is fine. The freedom to move loose impediments in a bunker was one of the 2019 changes. Rule 12.2b also lists actions that are allowed:

• digging your feet in to take a stance;
• smoothing the sand to care for the course;
• placing clubs in the bunker;
• leaning on a club for balance;
• striking the sand in frustration.

The four ways to touch the sand that cost a penalty

Rule 12.2b says that before a stroke from a bunker you must not:

1. deliberately touch the sand to test it;
2. touch the sand with your club right in front of or right behind the ball;
3. touch the sand in a practice swing;
4. touch the sand in your backswing for the stroke.

Breaking Rule 12.2 brings the general penalty: loss of hole in match play, or two strokes in stroke play. If you breach the Rule more than once before an intervening event, such as making a stroke, Rule 1.3c(4) means you get only one penalty.

Relief in a bunker

Unplayable ball

Rule 19.3 gives the usual unplayable options for one penalty stroke, with drops kept inside the bunker, plus an extra option outside the bunker.

More on these choices is on the unplayable ball page.

No free relief for an embedded ball

A ball embedded in its own pitch-mark in the general area gets free relief under Rule 16.3, but the NCGA's summary of that Rule notes there is no such relief in a bunker. See relief and dropping for the free relief that is available.

Players who are blind

Rule 25.2 modifies Rule 12 for players who are blind: they may lightly ground the club in the sand right in front of or behind the ball. The players with disabilities page covers the rest of Rule 25.

For the technique side of getting out of sand, see bunker play.