Ask the Ref: If your ball lies in a bunker that is covered with temporary water, what options do you have?

My ball ends up in a bunker full of temporary water. What can I do?

Temporary water is an abnormal course condition from which a player may take free relief (but don’t have to). However as always in golf, there are certain rules about what you can and can’t do!

Option 1

Relief is available if any of the following is true:

• the ball touches or is in or on an abnormal course condition;
• the condition physically interferes with the area of intended stance or
• area of intended swing;
• or when the ball is on the putting green if the condition intervenes on the line of play.

In this question, the ball is known to lie in the water in the bunker. Free relief may be taken using the nearest point of complete relief within the bunker plus one club length no nearer the hole and the relief area must be within the bunker.

If there is no such nearest point of complete relief within the bunker, the player may use the point of maximum available relief in the bunker as the reference point. This could mean that you are playing from 1cm of water rather than 10cm, but there is no penalty involved.

It may be that your ball is in deep water in the bunker and cannot found. The Rules do offer free relief provided it is known or virtually certain that the ball is at rest in that temporary water (ie you or someone else saw it go in). The same rules and procedures apply as before, but using the estimated point where the ball last crossed the edge of the temporary water and using that as the spot of the ball. This spot is then used for determining the nearest point of complete relief or point of maximum available relief in the bunker if complete relief is not possible. Once that spot has been identified, you may take one club length from that point, no nearer the hole.

Option 2

There is a second option. This allows you to take relief from outside the bunker for one penalty stroke (back on line relief). Keeping the spot of the original ball between the hole (pin) and the spot where the ball is to be dropped, you can go back as far as you like. This is a really useful option when the bunker is full of water and the bunker has not been declared as ground under repair in the general area by the committee and advised in a Temporary Local Rule.

By Sheila Waltham

About the author

Sheila Waltham has been a qualified rules official for over 15 years. She joined the England Golf Tournament Panel of Referees in 2019. A keen golfer since 1995. Sheila’s interest in the Rules was born out of the realisation that a lot of the information she received as a novice golfer was incorrect. So, she took matters into her own hands!

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For further information refer to the R&A Rules of Golf.