Bunkers cause more rules confusion than almost any other part of the course. What counts as being “in” one, what you can and can’t touch before you swing, and what your options are if the ball’s unplayable. This is the complete guide, covering every situation a club golfer will actually face in the sand.
There’s a moment every golfer knows: ball in the sand, and a flicker of doubt about what you’re actually allowed to do before you swing. Can you rest your club? Move a stone? What happens if you can’t get the ball out at all? Bunkers have their own dedicated rules for a reason and knowing them removes the guesswork.
WHY THIS MATTERS
Bunker mistakes are some of the easiest penalties to pick up without realising it — grounding a club, testing the sand, or taking relief in the wrong place can all cost two strokes or the hole. It’s also one of the few areas of the rules where professionals get caught out on television, which tells you how easy it is to get wrong. Understanding bunkers properly means playing with confidence instead of hesitation, and knowing exactly what your options are the moment things go wrong.
THE SITUATIONS
Is my ball actually in the bunker?
A ball is in the bunker if any part of it touches sand inside the edge of the bunker, or ground where sand would normally be. It’s also in the bunker if it’s in or on a loose impediment, movable obstruction, or similar object touching that sand. If your ball is resting on grass or soil inside the bunker margin without touching any sand, it isn’t in the bunker at all and it matters, because none of the bunker restrictions apply to it.
What you can’t do before you play
Before your stroke, you must not deliberately touch sand with a hand, club, rake or anything else to test its condition. You also can’t touch sand with your club in the area right in front of or behind the ball, during a practice swing, or on your backswing. Any of these carries the general penalty; two strokes in stroke play, loss of hole in match play.
Building a stance can catch you out here too, as Lottie Woad discovered at the 2026 US Women’s Open, where a two-stroke penalty for improving her footing turned a bogey into a triple bogey. Read the full incident article HERE
What you actually can do
This is where most golfers underestimate their own freedom. You’re allowed to dig your feet in to take a stance, smooth the sand afterwards to care for the course, place clubs or equipment down in the bunker, measure, mark, lift or replace your ball under a rule, lean on a club for balance, and even strike the sand in frustration. None of that is a breach provided it doesn’t improve the conditions affecting your actual stroke.
Removing loose impediments and movable obstructions
Before playing, you can remove things like leaves, twigs or a rake from the bunker, and any reasonable touching of the sand that happens while doing so isn’t a penalty.
If your ball is unplayable in the bunker
You have four options. Three cost one penalty stroke each: play again from where you last hit (which may take you out of the bunker if that’s where you played from), take back-on-the-line relief within the bunker, or take relief within two club-lengths inside the bunker.
The fourth costs two penalty strokes: back-on-the-line relief dropped outside the bunker altogether, the escape route if you simply can’t find a workable stance or lie inside the sand. For the full picture on declaring a ball unplayable anywhere on the course, see our complete guide to unplayable lies HERE.
If there’s a puddle, or another abnormal condition, in the bunker
Interference from things like temporary water is treated differently to an unplayable lie. You get free relief within the bunker at the nearest point of complete relief. If there’s no complete relief available inside the bunker, you can instead take a one-penalty-stroke drop outside it, on a line keeping the original spot between you and the hole.
Once the ball’s out
All the sand restrictions disappear the moment your ball is out of the bunker — you can then touch the sand freely, even if your next shot is played from back inside it.
WATCH: SEE IT IN ACTION
For a walk-through of these situations, golf creator Hannah Holden covers the full run of bunker rules in one video — touching the sand, grounding the club, moving obstructions, and when free or penalty drops apply. It’s a useful companion to the rules above if you’d rather see them demonstrated than read them.
THE MOST COMMON MISTAKES
- Grounding the club without realising it — a light brush of sand on the backswing still counts.
- Testing the sand with a hand or rake before deciding how to play the shot.
- Not knowing the two-stroke “escape” option exists when a bunker lie is genuinely unplayable.
- Assuming a rake or loose leaf in the bunker can’t be moved — it can, before you play.
RULE REFERENCES
- Link to Rule 12 — Bunkers, Rules of Golf 2023 (R&A/USGA)
- Link to Rule 16.1 — Relief from Abnormal Course Conditions, Rules of Golf 2023 (R&A/USGA)
- Link to Rule 19.3 — Relief Options for Unplayable Ball in Bunker, Rules of Golf 2023 (R&A/USGA)
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