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Other than “Phil Mickelson,” it’s safe to say that the most popular two words at the 2021 PGA Championship were “sandy areas.”
As they did for the 2012 edition, the PGA of America declared that despite being built literally on the edge of the Atlantic Ocean, the Ocean Course at Kiawah Island Golf Resort would have no formal bunkers as defined by the Rules of Golf. Players were instructed to treat all sand the same: as part of the golf course’s “general area.”
This meant that in both the large wastes and defined pots otherwise maintained like traditional bunkers and totally surrounded by grass, players could sole a club behind the ball lightly before taking the club back to play a shot. They were also allowed to touch sand on their practice swings in the bunk—er, sandy areas.
The championship passed without uncomfortable Rules infractions or complaint from TV viewers over whether a player had broken the Rules by inadvertently moving a few stray grains on his backswing. Coincidentally, Abraham Ancer, who was penalized for that precise infraction at the Masters in April, turned in the round of the week at Kiawah on Sunday, a 7-under 65 to finish tied for eighth.
Did this local rule make such shots less compelling? Hardly. Just look at the reaction to Mickelson’s spectacular hole-out from the sand on the par-3 5th hole on Sunday. Safe to say the thousands on the ground at Kiawah and the millions watching at home thought highly of the shot.
This shot is going to be remembered FOREVER. pic.twitter.com/nOJ2llkWKf
— CBS Sports (@CBSSports) May 23, 2021
Which brings me to a question that might make golf purists and rule hawks quiver: Should all golf courses make all sand part of the “general area” like Kiawah did?
In the interest of simplifying the game, I am tempted to say “Yes” for a few reasons.
Pros, take note: you can touch the sand with your club in South Carolina. But in Wisconsin, it's forbidden.
3 reasons to allow golfers to ground their clubs in the sand
First, prohibiting a player from grounding his or her club in a greenside or fairway bunker does not make those shots more difficult in any significant way. If anything, the ability to gain a little extra information from taking a practice swing away from the ball might tempt golfers into playing more aggressively, leading to further problems.
Second, lifting the veil between "bunker" and "general area" would make the separation between what is and isn’t a penalty area more logical, especially in light of the USGA and R&A’s 2019 revisions to the Rules of Golf regarding bunkers.
As it currently stands, a player has more freedom in a staked or painted penalty area than in a bunker, since grounding one’s club and taking practice swings there is now allowed. It feels vaguely counter-intuitive that one would have more liberty to settle into a shot at the margins of a pond or wetland than in a greenside bunker.
Finally, turning bunkers into part of a course’s general area would eliminate potential contention over unintentional Rules infractions. In my own casual rounds, often with golfers of a certain age, I see plenty of accidental groundings of a wedge in bunkers. If I called these out, I’d soon have no one to play with.
Abraham Ancer clearly gained no advantage over the field in committing his 2021 Masters penalty. Neither did Anna Nordqvist, whose own accidental brush with sand cost her a chance to win the 2016 U.S. Women’s Open.
Is there any doubt that Dustin Johnson’s own similar infraction distracted from a thrilling conclusion to the 2010 PGA at Whistling Straits? Interestingly, the PGA of America doubled down in the 2015 edition, once again declaring all of the course’s nearly 1,000 individually-wrapped sandy pits – even the ones where the crowd had been walking – to be bunkers.
As for the 2021 Ryder Cup, it should be business as usual. A PGA of America source indicated, “I would expect we will treat them all as bunkers as we have done at all our Championships played there.”
Different courses, drastically different rules on sand
But what about everyday visitors? “During normal play, in general, we allow players to ground their club in bunkers where there is no rake,” says Mike O’Reilly, director of golf at Destination Kohler, of which Whistling Straits is a part. “Most of the fairway bunkers do not have rakes [but] most of the greenside bunkers do have rakes. The majority of our guests play this way.”
But, O’Reilly added, some guests elect to play any sand as a bunker, rake or not, in deference to the rules of past major championships at the course.
The Ocean Course and Whistling Straits are two Pete Dye masterpieces where sand plays a key architectural and strategic role. The two diametrically opposed stances on how that sand is to be handled show the current freedom of facilities to determine procedures under the Rules of Golf.
Pros, take note: you can touch the sand with your club in South Carolina. But in Wisconsin, it's forbidden.
As during the PGA, Ocean Course encourages everyday golfers to ground their clubs in its sandy areas. So do two great Mike Strantz courses beloved of traveling golfers, Tobacco Road in North Carolina and True Blue in South Carolina.
In Florida, Streamsong Resort takes a hybrid approach, recommending “maintained” sand be treated as a bunker while the sandy in-between areas throughout the property be treated the same as rough.
PSA: A word on 'waste bunkers'
The term “waste bunker” is a nonsense term in golf. I recommend eliminating it from your vocabulary.
It is an inherent contradiction because “waste” implies an area through the green while “bunker” implies, well, a bunker. If you are referring to an expanse of sand where you may ground your club, it is a “waste area.” If you may not ground your club, it is a bunker, no matter how big. Keeping these terms straight will limit confusion.
Some courses will delineate through-the-green waste areas from proper bunkers with a blue stake. Others advise golfers that a certain shade of sand is to be played as bunker while another shade is to be treated normally.
Sandridge Golf Club, my home course, asks players to treat all sand as bunkers, even the large dunes that border several holes on both its courses. Of course, during the COVID-19 pandemic, in the absence of rakes, we were allowed to place the ball in our bunkers, contradicting the play-it-as-you-find-it spirit of the rules.
Is this inconsistency and potential confusion necessary? Is the freedom of self-determination worth a bit of confusion among golfers, especially those taking up the game recently? It seems to me that bunker play is enough of a challenge to golfers that the Rules of Golf need not place an extra layer of anxiety over the top of it. Play the ball as it lies, ground the club if you need to and move on. If you don’t like being in the sand, don’t hit it there.
