Cink Rule Amended

Just saw this in Golfweek, but thankfully, something good happened to Stewart Cink. The USGA amended rule 13-4 that cost him a DQ in New Orleans.

According to Jim Bunch, chairman of the USGA’s Rules of Golf Committee, the new position on Rule 13-4 was approved April 6 at a previously scheduled Joint Rules Committee meeting held at Cuscowilla in Eatonton, Ga.

Bunch said the USGA had sent a memo to major professional tours earlier this year confirming its position on Rule 13-4 – that the raking of a bunker similar to that which happened in the Cink incident was a breach – but it also stated that the organization planned to revisit that position. Because of the Cink incident, it quickly was moved to the top of the agenda at Cuscowilla.

“Basically what the Joint Rules Committee is saying is that no one ever wanted something like (the Cink situation) to be a penalty,” Bunch said. “Our new position would be that we would not consider it ‘testing’ in certain circumstances if your ball lies in a similar but different hazard.”

Here's the official ruling now from the USGA:

“Rule 13-4a prohibits a player from testing the condition of the hazard in which his ball lies or a similar hazard. Yet Exception 3 to the Rule, which was introduced in 2008, allows a player to test the condition of one hazard after playing from that hazard into a similar hazard. Although Decision 13-4/0.5 lists smoothing a bunker with a rake, club or otherwise as an example of testing the condition of the hazard, the Etiquette Section of the Rules of Golf provides that “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.”

“It is not the intent of Rule 13-4a to prohibit players from practicing the proper etiquette of the game when more than one bunker is involved. Therefore, when the player’s ball lies in a bunker, it would not be a breach of the Rules if the player were to smooth the sand in another bunker, provided (a) the smoothing is for the purpose of tidying up the bunker, (b) the smoothing does not breach Rule 13-2 (Improving Lie, Area of Intended Stance or Swing, or Line of Play) with respect to his next stroke and (c) there is not a reasonable possibility that the smoothing could affect a subsequent stroke by the player.

“If the player were to smooth sand in the bunker in which his ball lies prior to making his first stroke in that bunker, he would be in breach of Rule 13-4a.”