Ball embedded in bunker face
Brooks Koepka claimed his fifth Major by winning the 2023 US PGA Championship at Oak Hill, holding off Viktor Hovland, who played well until one major hiccup on the 16th, as Jin-Woo Kim, assistant director – Rules (Asia Pacific) at The R&A, reports.
Trailing Koepka by a shot, Hovland’s ambitious approach from the bunker on the right of the 16th fairway only advanced a few yards before it got plugged in the grass just above the bunker. While a bunker is a specially prepared area of sand with some restrictions to confront its challenges, the grass bank lip of this prepared area, which consists of soil and grass, is part of the general area, not the bunker.
As Hovland’s second shot ended up in its own pitch mark on the grass bank – made as a result of his previous stroke – and part of the ball was below the level
