Most contact with bunker sand is allowed—but four limits still matter.

The worldwide Rules of Golf baseline used here

This page applies the joint R&A and USGA 2023 Rules of Golf, effective worldwide from 1 January 2023, especially Rules 8, 12, 15, 16, 19 and 25. It was checked against the live digital Rules and the Additional Clarifications updated 1 July 2026.

The standard bunker restrictions are the same in ordinary match play and stroke play, but the general penalty differs. A Committee may define bunker edges, reclassify sandy areas, mark ground under repair or adopt a Model Local Rule, so the scorecard, Local Rules and Terms of the Competition remain controlling for the round.

Check the location, purpose, contact, and effect

1. Establish whether the ball is actually in a bunker under Rule 12.1, the Definition of “bunker” and any Local Rule adopted by the Committee.
2. Before touching or moving anything, check whether the ball could move.
3. Ask whether the action would test the sand or touch it with the club in a prohibited place or movement.
4. Even if the action is otherwise allowed, do not improve the lie, stance, swing area, line of play, or relief area for the next stroke.
5. If playing the ball as it lies is undesirable, identify the correct free-relief or penalty-relief Rule before lifting it.
6. After play, restore the bunker when Rule 12.2b(3) allows it. If the player's ball is still in the bunker, do not rake an area affecting the next stroke unless another Rule permits restoration.

Not every sandy lie is a bunker

A bunker is a specially prepared area of sand. A ball is in a bunker when any part of it touches sand on the ground inside the bunker edge. It is also in the bunker when it is inside that edge on ground where sand normally would be, or rests in or on certain objects or conditions that touch that sand or ground.

Sand spilled outside the prepared edge, a natural sandy or waste area, and a soil, grass, stacked-turf, or artificial wall or face at the edge are not part of the bunker under the standard definition. A ball on soil, grass, a bush, or another growing or attached natural object inside the edge is not in the bunker if it touches no bunker sand. Those lies are normally in the general area, so the special Rule 12 restrictions do not apply.

Any part touching the bunker is enough

If part of a ball touches bunker sand while another part touches the general area, Rule 2.2c treats the ball as lying in the bunker. By contrast, a ball sitting entirely on a grass island inside the prepared edge without touching sand is not in the bunker.

The Committee may define a difficult edge with stakes, a painted line, or a groove. It may also use a Local Rule to treat a prepared sandy area as general area, or a non-prepared sandy area as a bunker. Names such as “waste bunker” or “sand trap” do not decide the status; the definition and applicable Local Rules do.

These contacts with sand bring a penalty

Before making a stroke at a ball in a bunker, Rule 12.2b(1) prohibits the player from:

• deliberately touching sand in that bunker with a hand, club, rake, or other object to test its condition and learn information for the next stroke;
• touching sand with a club in the area immediately in front of or immediately behind the ball, except for reasonable contact while fairly searching or removing an allowed object;
• touching sand with a club while making a practice swing; or
• touching sand with a club during the backswing for the stroke.

The Rules do not use a broad old-style ban on “grounding the club in a hazard.” A club may touch bunker sand elsewhere when none of these prohibitions applies and the player does not test or improve the relevant conditions. Grounding it immediately behind the ball remains prohibited.

Purpose matters even when the contact looks harmless

Deliberately pressing, scraping, or probing sand to learn whether it is firm, soft, wet, deep, or compact tests the condition and breaches Rule 12.2b. The ban is not limited to using the club: a hand, rake, tee, or other object can also be used improperly.

Probing can be allowed for a different genuine purpose. Official Clarification 12.2b/2 permits a player to use a tee to determine the extent of a drain or whether a root, rock, or obstruction will interfere, provided the action does not improve the conditions affecting the stroke. The same physical action becomes a breach if its purpose is to assess the sand for the shot.

Ordinary preparation does not require avoiding every grain

Subject to the four restrictions and Rule 8.1, a player may dig in reasonably with the feet to take a stance for a practice swing or the stroke. The player may set or throw clubs and equipment into the bunker, measure, mark, lift, replace, or take another action authorised by a Rule, and lean on a club to rest, balance, or prevent a fall.

Rule 12 even lists striking the sand in anger as contact that does not by itself breach the bunker-touching restriction. That does not give permission to damage the course, unreasonably delay play, improve the next stroke, or engage in serious misconduct under a Code of Conduct. “Allowed under Rule 12.2b” is not an exemption from every other Rule.

Leaves, stones, twigs, and rakes may be removed

Rule 12.2a allows loose impediments—unattached natural objects such as leaves, stones, and twigs—and movable obstructions such as a rake to be removed before the bunker stroke. Reasonable incidental touching or movement of sand while removing them is allowed.

The method must remain reasonable. Dragging a pine cone through sand to flatten a mound in the intended swing area can breach Rule 8.1a when it could simply have been lifted. If removing a loose impediment causes the ball to move, Rule 15.1b normally requires replacement and adds one penalty stroke. If moving a movable obstruction causes the ball to move, Rule 15.2a normally requires replacement without penalty.

Care for the course without preparing a better shot

A player may smooth sand to care for the course before playing, but not when the action improves conditions affecting the next stroke. Those conditions include the lie, the area of intended stance or swing, the line of play, and the relief area where a ball will be dropped or placed.

Raking footprints well away from any relevant area is normally harmless. Smoothing a footprint on the line of a short bunker shot before playing over it can improve that line and bring the general penalty; an intention to care for the course does not override Rule 8.1a.

Rule 8.1d supplies an important exception when protected conditions are worsened after the ball comes to rest by a person other than the player or by an animal. The player may then restore the original conditions as nearly as possible. That permission does not apply when the worsening was caused by the player or caddie, someone acting with the player's authority, or natural forces such as wind or water.

The restrictions normally end when the ball is outside

Once the ball has been played and is outside the bunker, the player may touch and smooth sand there without penalty under Rules 12.2b(1) and 8.1a. This remains true even if the sand is on the line of play for the next stroke from outside, or the player might later have to return to the bunker under stroke and distance.

The restrictions resume if the ball comes back into the bunker, the player drops a ball in it, or the player decides not to take relief outside it. A player who has lifted a bunker ball for relief but has not yet decided between an inside and outside option must still obey Rule 12.2. Merely considering outside relief is not enough; after choosing it, the player must actually take that relief outside.

Temporary water and obstructions usually keep the drop in the bunker

Temporary water, ground under repair, an animal hole, and an immovable obstruction such as a drain are abnormal course conditions. When one physically interferes with a bunker ball, intended stance, or intended swing, Rule 16.1c normally permits free relief. The nearest point of complete relief and the one-club-length relief area must be in the same bunker and no nearer the hole.

If complete relief is impossible inside the bunker, the player may use the point of maximum available relief in the bunker as the reference point for free relief. Alternatively, the player may take back-on-the-line relief outside the bunker for one penalty stroke. A ball plugged in bunker sand does not receive embedded-ball relief under Rule 16.3, because that relief applies only when the ball is embedded in the general area.

Danger, no play zones, and unplayable lies use defined procedures

A dangerous animal condition, such as a venomous snake or stinging bees close enough to risk serious injury, uses Rule 16.2. For a bunker ball, its relief procedure follows the bunker options in Rule 16.1c. A no play zone in an abnormal course condition cannot be ignored: the player must take the applicable free relief inside the bunker or one-stroke back-on-the-line relief outside it.

The player alone may treat a bunker ball as unplayable. For one penalty stroke, stroke and distance is available; back-on-the-line or lateral relief must remain in the bunker. Rule 19.3 also offers back-on-the-line relief outside the bunker for a total of two penalty strokes. The full measurements and dropping procedures are covered in the unplayable-ball relief guide.

The same contact can have different outcomes

• Situation — club set down in sand behind the player. 2023 R&A/USGA ruling: allowed if it is not used to test the sand and does not improve the conditions affecting the stroke. Decisive fact: placing equipment in a bunker is listed as allowed contact, and the club is not in a prohibited area or movement.
• Situation — club brushes sand on a practice swing. 2023 R&A/USGA ruling: general penalty, even when the contact was accidental and the ball did not move. Decisive fact: Rule 12.2b(1) prohibits club contact with sand while making a practice swing.
• Situation — feet twist into the sand for stability. 2023 R&A/USGA ruling: reasonable digging in to take the stance is allowed; building a stance or deliberately altering the surface beyond that is not. Decisive fact: Rules 8.1b(5) and 12.2b(2) permit reasonable foot action, not construction of a more favourable platform.
• Situation — a leaf beside the ball is lifted straight up. 2023 R&A/USGA ruling: removal is allowed, but if it causes the ball to move, replace the ball and normally add one penalty stroke. Decisive fact: the leaf is a loose impediment, so Rule 15.1b—not the movable-obstruction exception—controls ball movement.
• Situation — a rake lies against the ball. 2023 R&A/USGA ruling: move the rake; if the ball moves as a result, replace it without penalty. Decisive fact: a rake is a movable obstruction governed by Rule 15.2a.
• Situation — a practice swing touches grass on the bunker face but no sand. 2023 R&A/USGA ruling: no breach of Rule 12.2b, although Rule 8.1 can still apply if the stroke conditions were improved. Decisive fact: under the standard bunker definition, that soil-and-grass face is outside the bunker.

Six familiar shortcuts are incomplete

• “The club may never touch sand”: many contacts are allowed; the purpose, location, movement, and effect decide the ruling.
• “Grounding the club is now always legal”: touching sand immediately in front of or behind the ball with the club remains prohibited.
• “Nothing may be moved in a bunker”: loose impediments and movable obstructions may be removed, with different consequences if the ball moves.
• “Raking is always good course care”: it is not allowed before the stroke when it improves a condition affecting that stroke.
• “A plugged ball gets a free drop”: embedded-ball relief does not apply to a ball embedded in bunker sand.
• “Every sandy waste area uses bunker rules”: natural sand and areas defined as general area do not become bunkers merely because they contain sand.

A ruling turns on facts, purpose, and possible advantage

A referee or Committee determines whether the ball was in the bunker, whether sand was touched, where and when contact occurred, what the player was trying to learn or do, and whether the action improved a condition affecting the stroke. Evidence from the player, caddie, witnesses, and available video may help establish those facts.

The penalty for breaching Rule 12.2 is the general penalty: loss of hole in match play or two strokes in stroke play. A different action can carry a separate consequence—for example, moving the ball while removing a loose impediment normally costs one stroke and requires replacement. If the player is uncertain in match play, Rule 20.1b governs a request for a ruling; in stroke play, Rule 20.1c allows the player to protect their position through the prescribed two-ball procedure when used in time.

Rule 25 changes specific contacts and relief for eligible players

A player who is blind and eligible under Rule 25.2 may touch sand with a club immediately in front of or behind the ball and during the backswing, provided the lie is not improved beyond lightly grounding the club. Testing the sand and touching it during a practice swing remain prohibited. An assistive mobility device may touch sand for ordinary use, but must not be used to test it.

For a player using a wheeled mobility device, Rule 25.4n reduces the extra back-on-the-line unplayable-ball option outside the bunker from two penalty strokes to one. A Committee may also adopt the revised Model Local Rule M-4, effective 1 July 2026, for a ball in or near a bunker when the bunker, wall, lip, or slope makes the intended stance impossible or requires unreasonable effort.

Under M-4, a bunker ball normally uses a one-club-length relief area in the same bunker from the nearest usable point, which may be nearer the hole. If no such point exists in the bunker, the outside-bunker procedure applies; a ball already outside uses a nearest outside point that is not nearer the hole. There is no relief for a lie that is clearly unreasonable for another reason or when the player creates interference by choosing a clearly unreasonable line, club, or swing. None of this M-4 relief exists unless the Committee has adopted the Local Rule.

Check how the Committee has classified the sand

Committee Procedures C-1 to C-4 allow a Committee to clarify bunker edges, change the status of areas of sand, treat specified sand-like material consistently, or declare a practice bunker to be general area. The Committee can also define an entire bunker under repair as ground under repair; it is then treated as general area rather than as a bunker.

These Local Rules change whether Rule 12 applies, not the standard text of Rule 12 itself. Read the scorecard, notice board, electronic player information, and Terms of the Competition before assuming that a sandy feature is governed the same way as one at another course.

Governing-body sources and effective version

• R&A/USGA — 2023 Rules of Golf, Rule 12: Bunkers
• R&A/USGA Official Guide — Rule 12 Clarifications 12.2a/1 and 12.2b/1–3
• R&A/USGA — 2023 Rules of Golf, Rule 8.1: conditions affecting the stroke
• R&A/USGA — 2023 Rules of Golf, Rules 15.1–15.2: loose impediments and movable obstructions
• R&A/USGA — 2023 Rules of Golf, Rules 16.1c, 16.2 and 16.3: bunker relief and embedded ball
• R&A/USGA — 2023 Rules of Golf, Rule 19.3: unplayable ball in bunker
• R&A/USGA — 2023 Rules of Golf, Rules 25.2f, 25.4l and 25.4n: disability modifications
• R&A/USGA Official Guide — Committee Procedures, Model Local Rules C-1–C-4 and M-4
• R&A/USGA — Additional Clarifications of the 2023 Rules of Golf, updated 1 July 2026 (revised MLR M-4)

Checked on 27 August 2026 against the joint 2023 Rules of Golf, effective 1 January 2023, the live Rule 12 Clarifications and the Additional Clarifications dated 1 July 2026. Local Rules and Terms of the Competition may change a sandy area's classification or add an authorised relief option; MLR M-4 applies only when adopted.