Good intentions

The simple act of raking a sand trap can prove costly

Dear North Shore Golf,

I’ve always been taught proper golf etiquette. But last week during a match at a friend’s club, I somehow cost myself a hole in a match because I was fixing a breach of etiquette that someone else committed.
My ball landed about 20 yards to the right of the green. There was a bunker between my ball and the green and when I set up for my shot, I noticed that whoever was in the bunker before our group didn’t rake his or her footprints. The footprints were pretty deep and the way my short game was going that day, I figured there was a pretty good chance that I was going to end up in there. So before taking my shot, I walked into the bunker and groomed it with the rake. I put the rake on the side of the bunker and went back to my ball. I made a great chip, putting it within three feet, and then prepared myself for a huge birdie putt.
But as I walked up to the green, the guy I was playing against said I lost the hole because I raked the trap before my shot. “That’s the most ridiculous thing I’ve ever heard,” I screamed. He insisted that by raking the trap, even though it wasn’t my mess, I was “improving my line of play.”
I was irate. But since I was a guest that day and I didn’t want to make a scene, I went along with him. But it’s still driving me crazy.
Can this possibly be true?
- M.R. Lynn, Mass.

North Shore Golf turned to Woburn CC head pro Paul Barkhouse for a rule clarification:

Dear M.R.

Your fellow competitor was right in what he said to you. In match play you would have lost the hole, while in stroke play you would have been penalized two strokes.

The ruling is found under “Rule 13-2, Improving Lie, Area of Intended Stance or Swing, or Line of Play.” This rule clearly states that a player “must not improve or allow to be improved his line of play or a reasonable extension of that line beyond the hole.” By raking the trap, this is exactly what you did. The only place on the course you are allowed to improve your “line of play” is on the tee and on the green.

This is not a new rule as I can give a couple of situations that this came up while I was on Tour. The first that comes to mind occurred at the Philadelphia Golf Classic at Whitemarsh CC in the early 1970s. We were on a 190-yard, par-3 that had a huge water hazard between the front of the tee and the front of the green. There was a long wait on the tee that day and as my group waited, one of the players was walking around in front of the tee. He broke off a pussy willow in the water hazard. Immediately after doing this, the other player in our group told him he had to take a two-stroke penalty, much to the surprise of the offending player. He thought it was crazy, but just like in your case, it was true. Ironically, that player missed the cut by one stroke.

The second incident occurred in 1975 at the Inverrary Classic in Ft. Lauderdale and involved Tour veteran Tom Weiskopf. You would think a 15-time winner on the PGA Tour would know the rules inside and out. It happened on the 17th hole of the final round when he hit his drive to the right and into some trees. As he approached his ball, he and his caddie forgot to get the proper yardage so the player walked up to the green, and in doing so, he walked directly through a fairway bunker. On the way back to his ball, he smoothed out the footprints that he had made in the bunker. The incident cost him two strokes and he missed out on being in the playoff for the championship.

So, I suggest that everyone go out and purchase a rule book and learn the proper rules of this great game. Someday it might save you from a disaster.