Washed-out Bunker - What is the Ruling?

Situation:

1) It has rained the night before and the grounds crew has not had a chance to repair damage to the sand traps

2) You hit your shot onto the eroded part of the trap with no sand underneath the ball

Assuming that you do not want to hit the ball as it lies, what do you do?

OPTION 1 - Call the lie unplayable, and then

– Take a drop of no more than 2 club lengths no closer to the hole, but still in the bunker incurring a 1 shot penalty, or

– Replay the shot from the original position incurring a stroke and distance penalty, or

– Go back as far as you like in the bunker and drop keeping that spot where your ball laid between you and the hole. This incurs a 1 shot penalty.

OPTION 2 - Call the ball as being in ground under repair, then

– Find you nearest point of relief in the bunker

– Drop the ball within one club length of the point of relief, no closer to the hole

If I'm not in a tournament, I'm not playing out of that crap.  I'm dropping outside the bunker, I play golf to enjoy it, not suffer through a courses inability to properly maintain the course.  If it is in a tournament and I have paid to play, then I'd take the issue of the course condition up with the course.

When something like that happens overnight, it's virtually impossible to repair for the next day's play.

The rule is you get a free drop no closer to the hole in the bunker, nearest complete relief ( you must take complete relief) and one club length. If you don't want to take the drop in the bunker or can't you must drop outside the bunker and take complete relief and one club, no closer to the hole, or a line straight back from you lie in line with the pin how far you want or rehit from your last lie and this will cost you one stroke.

"That only applies if the area within the bunker has been declared GUR. If the whole bunker has been declared GUR, relief must be taken outside the bunker.

If it isn't GUR it must be played as it lies or treated as unplayable."

This is only half right, if you have to stand in casual water or your ball in in casual water you get a free drop in the bunker.

Well, if the bunker is GUR then it more or less doesn't exist as a bunker as the rules go. They don't do that where I play, the bunkers get washed out, the mats under the sand stick out and some turn into complete water hazards and since there is no local rule or relief you treat them as a water hazard.

A bunker cannot turn into a water hazard just by the addition of water, not even with a local rule.  Standing water in a bunker is casual water.

Did you read the relevant Decision as I suggested? It does not turn into a water hazard but becomes Through the Green.

....... in exceptional circumstances, where certain specific bunkers are completely flooded and there is no reasonable likelihood of the bunkers drying up during the round, the Committee may introduce a Local Rule providing relief without penalty from specific bunkers. Prior to introducing such a Local Rule, the Committee must be convinced that such exceptional circumstances exist and that providing relief without penalty from specific bunkers is more appropriate than simply applying Rule 25-1b(ii) . If the Committee elects to introduce a Local Rule, the following wording is suggested:

"The flooded bunker on [insert location of bunker; e.g., left of 5th green] is ground under repair. If a player's ball lies in that bunker or if that bunker interferes with the player's stance or the area of his intended swing and the player wishes to take relief, he must take relief outside the bunker, without penalty, in accordance with Rule 25-1b(i) . All other bunkers on the course, regardless of whether they contain water, maintain their status as hazards and the Rules apply accordingly."

The RBS have cited this as a precedent

25/13 If ..........the Committee defines the entire bunker as ground under repair, the bunker loses its status as a hazard and is automatically classified as "through the green."

The bunker in post #1 would qualify for this treatment