There are various restrictions on touching the sand with a club in a bunker. Rule 12.2b lays out the circumstances in which you will incur a general penalty (two strokes in stroke play and loss of hole in match play) if you touch the sand in a bunker with your club before making a stroke.
You can’t touch the sand with your club to test the condition of the sand. You can’t touch the sand right in front or right behind the ball with a club unless you are fairly searching for the ball or moving a loose impediment.
You can’t touch the sand with a club when making a practice swing or when making the backswing for your stroke.
But what about if your club touches the sand when you are measuring to take a drop? Is that a penalty? What do the Rules say?
Say for instance, you have found your ball in a puddle in a bunker as in the picture above and are taking relief for an abnormal course condition under Rule 16.1c.
You establish your nearest point of complete relief within the bunker and then have a relief area of one club length from that reference point (no nearer the hole).
When measuring that club length, you lay your club on top of the sand. Have you broken a Rule?
The answer is no.
Rule 12.2b(2) gives the circumstances in which touching the sand in a bunker does not result in a penalty.
One of those circumstances is “Measuring, marking, lifting, replacing or taking other actions under a Rule."
You are allowed to touch the sand with your club when you are measuring out a relief area and will not incur a penalty for doing so.
You can’t go beyond measuring and marking though. If, say, you were to measure one club length and drag the club repeatedly round in a semi-circle, smoothing the sand to create a super-smooth relief area, you would be breaking Rule 8.1a by improving the conditions affecting the stroke.
If you did that, you would receive the general penalty.
But if you simply touched the sand with your club when measuring your relief area, there would be no penalty.
You could also touch the sand with your club if you were just laying a club down having taken two clubs into the bunker with you.
You could also lean on a club in a bunker to keep your balance or steady yourself as you stepped down into it.
It’s important to be careful though and it’s worth checking Rule 12.2 fully to see when you can and can’t touch your club to the sand in a bunker.
