T
he playing of consecutive Men’s and
Women’s U.S. Open Championships in
Pinehurst, North Carolina marked the first
time that both championships were contested on
the same golf course in the same calendar year.
The extensive renovation that brought Pinehurst
back to its original Donald Ross design was on full
display, with one of its primary features being the
unique bunker and waste area restoration.
The team of Bill Coore and Ben Crenshaw
redesigned Pinehurst No. 2 by replacing twenty
acres of lush, green rough with sandy, hardpan
waste areas filled with pine needles and wiregrass.
They used aerial photos of the original Donald
Ross design as their guide, creating a new kind of
windswept, natural look and an “old-world” golfing
experience for this year’s championships.
With the addition of waste areas also came
the addition of wiregrass to many of the bunkers.
According to the Rules of Golf, a “bunker’’ is a hazard
consisting of a prepared area of ground, often a
hollow, from which turf or soil has been removed
and replaced with sand or the like.
Many times throughout the tournament, a
players ball came to rest on grass within a bunker,
prompting the question...What’s the ruling?
The definition of a bunker also states that
the margin of the bunker extends downward, not
upward, and a ball is in a bunker when it lies in
or any part of it touches the bunker. Since the ball
was sitting above the sand of the bunker, it is not
considered to be in the bunker. The player is entitled
to ground his club and remove loose impediments.
Although entitled to those options, the player
should be very cautious while he exercises them.
With the ball sitting up on just a few small blades of
grass, it could move with just the slightest outside
influence. If the ball moves after the player has
grounded his club, he will have deemed to have
caused the ball to move and will incur a one stroke
penalty.
Connecticut State Golf Association
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