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It's a bunker, not a sand trap
Since hearing even more golfers, including some of my fellow golf writers, referring to a bunker as a sand trap, it's time everyone made aware of the correct terminology.
There is no mention in the Rules of Golf of the term sand trap. It's simply called a bunker--"a hazard consisting of a prepared area of ground, often a hollow, from which turf or soil has been removed and replaced with sand or the like."
In Hawaii, for example, crushed lava is used instead of sand.
Rule 13-4 prohibits testing the condition, touching the ground or touching or removing loose impediments in a bunker.
However, there's a new Local Rule approved by the United States Golf Association and the Royal & Ancient Golf Club that allows golfers to remove stones from bunkers. It must, however, be on the rules sheet. We use this in our Dallas District Golf Association and the Texas Professional Golf League tournaments that I officiate.
There also is no penalty if a player touches the ground as a result of or to prevent from falling, in removing an obstruction (a rake), in measuring or in retrieving or lifting a ball and in placing clubs not in use provided nothing is done which constitutes testing the condition of the hazard or improves the lie of the ball.
A player may touch with the club any obstruction or any construction declared to be an integral part of the course or any grass, brush, tree or other growing thing without penalty.
There's even a decision that states no penalty is involved if the player touches the ball with his club without moving it.
However, touching a loose impediment, such as a leaf, would.
What about taking a stance in the bunker without a club? There's no penalty. It would be no different than if he had decided to change clubs. However, he could not smooth out the original footprints. If he did, he would be penalized.
Remember that a player has been considered to have addressed the ball in a bunker when he takes his stance since grounding the club is not allowed.
Since a player may not identify a ball in a hazard, there is no penalty for playing the wrong ball. He simply returns that ball to its original lie for the other player and hits his own ball.
When the ball is buried in the lip of a bunker, a player's best course of action might be to declare it unplayable. He has three options--play the ball as nearly as possible at the spot from which the original ball was last played, drop a ball within two-club lengths, but no nearer the hole, or drop a ball behind the point where the ball lay, keeping that point directly between the hole and the spot on which it is dropped, with no limit on how far back. If the third option is selected, the ball must remain in the bunker.
If a player's ball is covered with leaves, for example, he may remove enough of them so that he can see part of the ball. If an excess is removed, no penalty is incurred. The ball is just re-covered. there's no penalty if the ball is moved when doing this. It just has to be replaced and, if necessary, re-covered.
A ball is considered in a bunker when it lies in or any part of it touches the bunker. Grass covered ground within the hazard or bordering it or not part of the hazard.
When you find yourself in a bunker, not a sand trap, now at least you will know all your options.