USGA Revises Stupid Bunker Rule

For once, common sense prevailed at the USGA. Steward Cink was disqualified at the Zurich Classic in New Orleans last month after he stood in a fairway bunker and played a ball that was outside the bunker. After Cink’s shot went into a greenside bunker, his caddie dutifully raked his footprints in the fairway bunker before Cink played his next shot. That act of etiquette was deemed a violation of the rule against testing the condition of a hazard. When Cink asked a rules official about the sequence of events the next day, he was told he violated the rule and should have been assessed a two-stroke penalty. Since he signed an incorrect scorecard, Cink was DQ’d.

The USGA reviewed the rule, which frankly makes no sense. Under the old interpretation, a player would not risk having his caddie rake a fairway bunker or a greenside bunker for that matter, until he had safely holed out. Imagine the delay if caddies were scurrying back down the fairway to rake bunkers. That’s nuts. Now the USGA has determined that players in Cink’s situation would not be considered testing if their ball lies in a similar but different hazard.

The new interpretation saved LPGA player Shi Hyun Ahn a two-stroke penalty at the Kraft Nabisco Championship when her caddie raked a fairway bunker that another member of her group hit from as a courtesy. Sometimes the USGA does get it right.

Hitting range balls while wondering whatever happened to Don Bies.