Please use the rake!

[saevel25]

I never forget to rake because I bring the rake with me.

I also like to do a good job raking. Foot prints might be bad, but having a mound of sand because someone didn't rake the right way is just as bad.

On a side note, I find his flippant tone hilarious because I can just see him standing off to the side mumbling about the idiot golfers who don't rake the correct way.

[iacas]

I don't remember the last time I saw an un raked bunker.

[Mac62]

I don't remember the last time I saw an unraked bunker.

We should all be so lucky, Erik!

[DrvFrShow]

I've complained about hitting out of other people's bunker trenches because they failed to rake. Or my ball landing in the upper part of the bunker in a footprint - like it's one where their ball was on the lip outside and they were standing with one foot in the bunker and the sand was wet - and my ball is now in a 6" deep hole.

Use a rake after you're done. Please.

[Aguirre]

Of course you should rake but in the event I hit into somebody's footprint (a rarity) I simply don't hit it from that lie.  I'm not a masochist.

The exception would be waste areas that don't contain rakes where you can ground your club.  In those cases I just suck it up and hit from the footprint/tire track/whatever.

[Jeremie Boop]

While I appreciate that my fellow rakers are quick to speak up, I'm still very curious as to why the non-rakers make that choice. Is it:

- I don't really know how to do this, so I won't bother

- They pay people to fix these things

- The rakes aren't close enough

- If I had a caddy, he'd take care of it

- I didn't dig in too deep, it should be fine as it is

- Raking takes too much time

- ???

I rake anytime the sand isn't hard as concrete. Meaning that I can walk on the sand and barely leave a mark.

[isukgolf]

I agree 110% on raking!!! However, I recently learned, here on the forums, from one of my favorite rules guys the following: That the Etiquette section in the rules says that using a rake isn't necessary. Apparently the only requirement is: [QUOTE]Before leaving a bunker, players should carefully fill up and smooth over all holes and footprints made by them and any nearby made by others. If a rake is within reasonable proximity of the bunker, the rake should be used for this purpose.[/QUOTE] Here to all of us that rake ... cheers! :beer:

[turtleback]

I played baseball in high school and every day after practice we had to meticulously rake our base area. I may be a weirdo but I actually enjoy raking a bunker and making it as perfect as possible after I play out.

I'm the same way.

I rake after my bunker shots. I also hold a rake while another player takes his shot and hand it to them when they're done if I happen to be standing near them.

I might be in the minority, but it really doesn't bother me if other people don't rake. The odds of putting myself in their mess in a bunker are pretty low and I've put myself in some pretty funky bunker lies that are far worse than being in somebody's footprint.

There is a part of me that wishes they would change this whole etiquette item and eliminate raking of bunkers altogether.  They are, after all, supposed to be hazards.  They hardly are that, these days, at the higher levels, when we see pros aiming at them to avoid greenside rough.  I'd be perfectly fine with bunkers becoming a kind of free for all zone where you get what you get and don't complain because you shouldn't have hit into there anyway.

While I appreciate that my fellow rakers are quick to speak up, I'm still very curious as to why the non-rakers make that choice. Is it:

Who is going to admit, here, that they don't rake bunkers?

[Lihu]

Quote:

Originally Posted by onkey

While I appreciate that my fellow rakers are quick to speak up, I'm still very curious as to why the non-rakers make that choice. Is it:

Who is going to admit, here, that they don't rake bunkers?

Well, there are lots of bad reasons someone doesn't clean up their bunkers. I'm a relative novice in this game and remember some bad reasons I didn't a few years ago.

At this point, I feel guilty not cleaning the entire bunker, but do clean up the immediate vicinity of my mess. . .

[Jeremie Boop]

Well, there are lots of bad reasons someone doesn't clean up their bunkers. I'm a relative novice in this game and remember some bad reasons I didn't a few years ago.

At this point, I feel guilty not cleaning the entire bunker, but do clean up the immediate vicinity of my mess. . .

In all honesty, I get angry that the courses I play don't bother to take better care of their bunkers. Thankfully the courses are taking out a lot of the bunkers since they can't seem to keep up with them. I don't feel the least bit guilty about not raking a bunker that's so bad most people won't even play out of them. Now, on courses where the bunkers are at least passable, I'll rake where I walk and hit from without hesitation.

[TreyWingbat]

Some of the rural courses I play at have a lot of wildlife tracks in them, so it's tough to keep the sand fresh always.

But it's not only the lack of raking, it's the lack of divot repair as others mentioned... even when the divot chunk is 2 feet away.  And let's not get started on unrepaired ball marks on the green... sometimes I feel like I repair 3 or 4 of them on a hole, and there's still 3 or 4 left.  Don't these people realize this is the same course you're going to play next time as well?

[Stormin]

I bring the rake with me on the way in. I dig in with my feet far too much to not have the courtesy to not repair my tracks.

[Ernest Jones]

Some of the rural courses I play at have a lot of wildlife tracks in them, so it's tough to keep the sand fresh always.  But it's not only the lack of raking, it's the lack of divot repair as others mentioned... even when the divot chunk is 2 feet away.  And let's not get started on unrepaired ball marks on the green... sometimes I feel like I repair 3 or 4 of them on a hole, and there's still 3 or 4 left.  Don't these people realize this is the same course you're going to play next time as well?

I've actually witnessed, on numerous occasions, someone complain about the plethora of pitch marks they have to putt through AND not repairing their own pitch mark. Do they think the pitch mark fairies will swing by at some point???

[mcanadiens]

The places I play sometimes don't actually have sand in the bunkers. Sometimes I won't make much of an effort to rake the dirt and rocks. If its real sand, I'm raking.