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Title card ‘Unplayable in a bunker: can you get out?’ above an approach seen from above, with the fairway, a large greenside bunker and the green with the flag.
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Rule 19.3 · Video, 48 seconds

Unplayable in a bunker: can you get out?

Your ball is stuck under the lip of a bunker. You can declare your ball unplayable in a bunker too. Then you have four options (Rule 19.3).

For one penalty stroke

  1. Back to your last stroke. You play again from where you made your last stroke, see stroke and distance. That spot is usually outside the bunker.
  2. Back on the line, in the bunker. You draw a line from the flag through your ball and go back on it, but you must drop in the bunker, see back-on-the-line relief.
  3. To the side, in the bunker. You drop within two club-lengths of your ball, no nearer the hole, also in the bunker, see lateral relief.

Out for two penalty strokes

Since 2019 there has been a fourth option: for a total of two penalty strokes, you drop back on the line from the flag through your ball, but outside the bunker.

Remember: getting out on the line costs two penalty strokes. Going back to your last stroke costs only one. How it works outside a bunker is shown in the video Unplayable ball.

Look it up in the lexicon

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