How To Rake A Bunker Perfectly?

[denkea]

13 hours ago, golfortennis said:

 

There isn't a self-respecting golf course on the plant that would not have the grounds crew tidy up their bunkers in the morning. 

I believe Pine Valley doesn't have rakes for their bunkers (waste area???).  They groom twice a week and ask that you smooth over your footprints before you leave the bunker.  

[Newby]

2 hours ago, denkea said:

I believe Pine Valley doesn't have rakes for their bunkers (waste area???).  They groom twice a week and ask that you smooth over your footprints before you leave the bunker.  

Do you mean real bunkers or waste areas?

[sui generis]

37 minutes ago, Newby said:

Do you mean real bunkers or waste areas?

 Bunkers.

 

Hubris has no boundaries. 🙄

[ChaosTheory]

I wonder…. If the accepted practice was to use your foot to smooth your dug in prints and shot divot, would more people do it?  I think maybe so. 
 

And it might be good enough. 
 

 

Edited November 17, 2022 by Snowman9000

[Newby]

2 hours ago, sui generis said:

 Bunkers.

 

Hubris has no boundaries. 🙄

🤔

[Evanwill10]

Rake your mess and whatever is within rakes distance and move on. Not enough time in a round to fix all the mess.

[Foxx]

No pro has to deal with a ball in an unraked bunker divot. Why should an amateur?

 

Pick it up and place it nearest point. Then rake as per usual after shot.

[sui generis]

35 minutes ago, Foxx said:

No pro has to deal with a ball in an unraked bunker divot. Why should an amateur?

 

Pick it up and place it nearest point. Then rake as per usual after shot.

 

You poor thing; life is so unfair. Take up pinkleball. 🙄

[Foxx]

7 minutes ago, sui generis said:

 

You poor thing; life is so unfair. Take up pinkleball. 🙄

It's a common sense approach isn't it? Based on the fact that even the best players in the world don't have to play out of unraked divots.

Edited December 4, 2022 by Foxx

[sui generis]

1 minute ago, Foxx said:

It's a common sense approach isn't it? Based on the fact that even the best players in the world don't have to play out of unraked divots.

 

Trolling is not accepted here. Go away.

[Foxx]

Just now, sui generis said:

 

Trolling is not accepted here. Go away.

Go away then. My point is reasonable. If you can't add anything intelligent to a topic then maybe forums are not your thing.

[sui generis]

9 minutes ago, Foxx said:

Go away then. My point is reasonable. If you can't add anything intelligent to a topic then maybe forums are not your thing.

 

You're a troll. Go away.

[Foxx]

Just now, sui generis said:

 

You're a troll. Go away.

Self assured people don't troll. Hope your life improves bro.

[QEight]

9 hours ago, Foxx said:

It's a common sense approach isn't it? Based on the fact that even the best players in the world don't have to play out of unraked divots.

They have to play though, if they find themselves in one.

 

 

[Foxx]

2 hours ago, QEight said:

They have to play though, if they find themselves in one.

 

 

Sure, but that's a very rare occurrence. So for 99.9% of the time they don't have the same problem.

[Newby]

1 hour ago, Foxx said:

Sure, but that's a very rare occurrence. So for 99.9% of the time they don't have the same problem.

But it happens and they still have to play it.

Some years ago I was refereeing an English PGA Open. A player in the first group landed in a foot print in a bunker by the first green. I later found that a spectator had tripped and put a foot in the bunker. The bunker marshal had not seen the incident and it had not been reported to him. The player involved initially made a big fuss when I indicated he was going to have to play it. But he then smiled and turned to the few spectators and said "That's what you lot have to deal with in the real world". He then played the ball and clambered out of the bunker to a gentle round of applause.

[Foxx]

9 minutes ago, Newby said:

But it happens and they still have to play it.

Some years ago I was refereeing an English PGA Open. A player in the first group landed in a foot print in a bunker by the first green. I later found that a spectator had tripped and put a foot in the bunker. The bunker marshal had not seen the incident and it had not been reported to him. The player involved initially made a big fuss when I indicated he was going to have to play it. But he then smiled and turned to the few spectators and said "That's what you lot have to deal with in the real world". He then played the ball and clambered out of the bunker to a gentle round of applause.

I love those types of stories. Thanks for sharing that.

I guess we get the privilege of experiencing something the pros don't get to experience 😉.

[nitram]

Honestly, how hard is it for any of us to make an earnest attempt to leave a bunker or green in as good a shape if not a little better than you found it??

 

How hard is it to spend 30 seconds raking a bunker, 10 seconds or less fixing a pitch mark or two??

 

I don't get it. Everyone likes to gripe about the state of their particular course, especially greens and bunkers. Just be a good citizen, do your part, and set an example for those who may not know any better.

[Foxx]

7 hours ago, nitram said:

Honestly, how hard is it for any of us to make an earnest attempt to leave a bunker or green in as good a shape if not a little better than you found it??

 

How hard is it to spend 30 seconds raking a bunker, 10 seconds or less fixing a pitch mark or two??

 

I don't get it. Everyone likes to gripe about the state of their particular course, especially greens and bunkers. Just be a good citizen, do your part, and set an example for those who may not know any better.

We are at the mercy of the players before us.

The regular group I play with. When we play a social round, we use the rabbit scrapings rule for divots. Because it certainly was a rabbit who didn't fix it!

[Newby]

14 hours ago, Foxx said:

We are at the mercy of the players before us.

The regular group I play with. When we play a social round, we use the rabbit scrapings rule for divots. Because it certainly was a rabbit who didn't fix it!

In this part of the world, handicappers > 15.0 are designated as 'Rabbits' (as opposed to 'Tigers') . Many areas of the country have formal Rabbits Leagues and Associations. As a former secretary of one such, I hope you didn't mean me 😉

[golfortennis]

On 12/4/2022 at 9:57 AM, nitram said:

Honestly, how hard is it for any of us to make an earnest attempt to leave a bunker or green in as good a shape if not a little better than you found it??

 

How hard is it to spend 30 seconds raking a bunker, 10 seconds or less fixing a pitch mark or two??

 

I don't get it. Everyone likes to gripe about the state of their particular course, especially greens and bunkers. Just be a good citizen, do your part, and set an example for those who may not know any better.

 

Apparently it is just this side of ending world hunger on the difficulty scale. 

 

Far too many people have developed an attitude of "the help will get it."

[Mr. Bean]

On 12/4/2022 at 2:24 AM, Foxx said:

It's a common sense approach isn't it? Based on the fact that even the best players in the world don't have to play out of unraked divots.

 

I have a hard time following your locig and I feel you have a problem with your attitude to the issue at hand.

 

Those best players in the world play in a completely different league than the rest of us so they have a bunch of people to rake the bunkers for them. But I can tell you that there are tens of thousands professional players who rake the bunkers themselves (or if they are lucky they have a caddie to do that) and they do it. No exceptions. None.

 

Why should you or anybody else be an exception? Rake the f*******g bunker.

 

Edited December 7, 2022 by Mr. Bean

[Mr. Bean]

On 12/5/2022 at 12:02 AM, Foxx said:

We are at the mercy of the players before us.

 

 

So why don't you be one of those players before those coming behind you and rake the bunker??

[EmperorPenguin]

The issue I have is that some people take issue with their ball landing in a bad spot in the bunker, and mutter that had the bunker been raked properly there would not have been an issue in the first place.  However it begs the question of how good is good enough?  No matter how hard I try, to me it seems impossible to rake a bunker such that there will not be a bad spot within where you raked it.  Again, so far the only method I can recommend is to pull the rake into you one foot, and push the sand out two feet.  As good as that is, it is not as perfect as the morning rake job.

[Robert72]

During Covid, the courses in my area removed the rakes from bunkers because they didn't want multiple people touching the same handle.

 

I never heard of any special rules, we just assumed you could give yourself a 'preferred' lie in the bunkers...which looked like mine fields where all the mines had been triggered!

[rogolf]

54 minutes ago, Robert72 said:

During Covid, the courses in my area removed the rakes from bunkers because they didn't want multiple people touching the same handle.

 

I never heard of any special rules, we just assumed you could give yourself a 'preferred' lie in the bunkers...which looked like mine fields where all the mines had been triggered!

There were several variations of bunker (and other) procedures/practices that were implemented due to an abundance of caution with respect to Covid.

All of these have since been removed.

However, the fact that some people think they still exist (or should exist) is an excellent example of the "slippery slope" that is often talked about!

[Foxx]

6 hours ago, Mr. Bean said:

 

I have a hard time following your locig and I feel you have a problem with your attitude to the issue at hand.

 

Those best players in the world play in a completely different league than the rest of us so they have a bunch of people to rake the bunkers for them. But I can tell you that there are tens of thousands professional players who rake the bunkers themselves (or if they are lucky they have a caddie to do that) and they do it. No exceptions. None.

 

Why should you or anybody else be an exception? Rake the f*******g bunker.

 

You've completely missed my point.

I do rake the bunkers. My point is that lot of amateurs don't, or properly. And that will never change. So we should have a nearest point of relief rule in the bunker when we are in someone else's divot.

Yes pros are in a different setting, and don't have anywhere near the same problem as us, that was part of my argument for the rule also. Maybe you should go back and read what I said properly.

Edited December 7, 2022 by Foxx

[Foxx]

5 hours ago, Mr. Bean said:

 

So why don't you be one of those players before those coming behind you and rake the bunker??

Presumptuous of you to think I don't.

[Newby]

20 minutes ago, Foxx said:

 

Yes pros are in a different setting, and don't have anywhere near the same problem as us, 

Not quite. It's only the top echelon of pros that have the luxury of 'bunker marshals'. Those that are not on the big tours (possibly 90% of them) have to play the bunkers as they find them after the rest of the field has gone through and raked as they thought fit or sometimes not.

[Foxx]

10 minutes ago, Newby said:

Not quite. It's only the top echelon of pros that have the luxury of 'bunker marshals'. Those that are not on the big tours (possibly 90% of them) have to play the bunkers as they find them after the rest of the field has gone through and raked as they thought fit or sometimes not.

The pros on the lower tier tours still have bunkers that are raked well 98% of the time. Most amateur golf would be luck if it's 50%.