Replacing a ball from a water filled bunker....

Hit my drive. It went into a fairway bunker. We get to the spot to find the bunker is slam full of water to the brim. Only a inch or two of sand can be seen around the edges. Where is a replacement ball to be placed/dropped without penalty?

This turned out to be a real argument in the group I was with. Can anyone help?

Under decision 25-1b/8, you can:

1) Drop it where the water is shallowest anywhere not nearer the hole but still in the bunker and play it from the water

2) Take a penalty stroke and drop it behind the bunker

3) Declare it unplayable and proceed under rule 28

https://www.usga.org/Rule-Books/Rules-of-Golf/Decision-25/#d25-1b-8

mdl is correct, sucks, doesn't it.

I guess it had been raining a lot.  Was this a casual round?  You guys must have been playing for a lot of money.

If it was a friendly round and your ball was in the bunker, I would have said: "We're the committee and we are going to do this:

http://www.usga.org/Rule-Books/Rules-of-Golf/Decision-33/#d33-8-27 "

Yep, me too! :beer:

Just to add to this, if you choose to drop 'behind the bunker", you drop on a line from the hole through where your ball lies as far back as you like.  If you can't retrieve your ball easily, you can substitute another ball.

If this was a tournament, did you check that the committee had not already made a local rule declaring the bunker to be GUR?