Usually, it’s pretty obvious whether or not a ball is in a bunker, but sometimes uncertainty can creep as was the case for Alejandro Tosti in round three of the PGA Tour’s Myrtle Beach Classic in May when his ball appeared to be embedded in a bunker face. Tosti took to Instagram to voice his displeasure at his ball being ruled in the bunkeras part of it was adjuged to be touching the sand, thus denying him embedded ball relief.
So, where are the boundaries? A bunker is defined as a “specially prepared area of sand, which is often a hollow from which turf or soil was removed”. The definitions section of the Rules then goes on to confirm what is not part of a bunker – i.e., a lip, wall or face at the edge of a prepared area and consisting of soil, grass, stacked turf or artificial materials – and that “soil or any growing or attached natural object inside the edge of a prepared area (such as grass, bushes or trees)” is not part of the bunker.
