Dear Linda,
This happened today. Par 5. Player knocked the ball
into a small (maybe 5 feet diameter) circular pot bunker by the green. It was
maybe 2 -3 feet deep with side walls straight up. After three failed attempts
to get it out he wanted to play it unplayable and drop outside the hazard. I
told him: “You can play it as unplayable and take the penalty but must drop in
the hazard.” Unfortunately for him there really wasn't much of an area to drop
which created a better escape from the bunker. Was he doomed to keep hitting
from the bunker until he got out (which he did), or can he drop outside the
bunker with a 2-stroke penalty???
Thank you,
Lou from North Carolina
Dear Lou,
Basically, the player is doomed.
When a player decides to deem his ball unplayable in a
bunker he has three choices, all of which include a one-stroke penalty:
1. Play a ball under stroke and distance (the only option
that might get the player out of the bunker – more on this shortly).
2. Drop a ball in the
bunker on the line-of-sight to the hole.
3. Drop a ball in the
bunker within two club-lengths of where the ball lay, no closer to the
hole.
Ordinarily, the shot that puts the ball in the bunker comes
from outside the bunker, so playing a ball under stroke and distance will put
the next shot outside the bunker. However, this player attempted to hit the
ball from the bunker. Playing under stroke and distance would require that the
ball be dropped in the bunker, since that was where he hit his previous shot.
Pot bunkers are notoriously dangerous. Sometimes the
sensible escape (stroke and distance) is the wisest choice. Think before you
flail!
Linda
Copyright © 2015 Linda Miller. All rights reserved.
