There have been multiple incidents of tour pros being questioned or even penalized in recent years for events in bunkers, including one back in 2019 when a player trying to qualify for the European Tour had two shots added to his score for simply tidying a bunker on his line of play.
The thing to remember when you’re in a bunker is you can’t do anything that can be construed as improving your lie or testing the conditions. If you’re not sure what that means, Rule 12.2 covers when touching the sand does or does not result in a penalty.
Here are some examples of do’s and don’ts:
1) If you touch the sand to determine how fluffy it is before you hit your shot, it’s a penalty (loss of hole in match play or two shots in stroke play).
2) If you remove loose impediments in a bunker and you happen to touch the sand while doing so, there is no penalty.
3) If you are getting into the bunker and use your club as an aid to keep from falling and it plants in the sand, there is no penalty.
4) If you make a practice swing in the bunker, even far away from your ball, and you clip the sand, it’s a penalty (loss of hole or two strokes).
Hopefully, you get the idea that other than digging in with your feet and removing loose impediments, you really shouldn’t do anything that improves your lie or conditions affecting your stroke.
But here comes the important exception (there’s always an exception, right?). Say you were to step into a bunker and see a portion of a drain that is exposed near your ball. Is it OK to “probe” the sand around your ball to figure out if the drain is interfering with your next shot? Or what if you suspect a sizeable rock is under your area of intended swing?
The answer under Rule 12.2b is that you’re probably OK to probe. Here’s the full clarification from the USGA:
Rule 8.1a/7 confirms that a player may probe anywhere on the course (including in a bunker) without penalty to determine if tree roots, rocks or obstructions might interfere with their stroke, as long as the player does not improve the conditions affecting the stroke.
For example, when a player’s ball comes to rest near a drain in a bunker, the player may use a tee to probe the sand to determine the extent of the drain and whether it will interfere with their stroke. However, if the purpose of the probing is to test the condition of the sand, the player is in breach of the rule.