I’ve previously replied at least twice to Tom and on this site regarding his question about what would happen if bunkers were no longer considered hazards. This thread is an attempt to eliminate the special prohibitions that bunkers and water hazards have, while not necessarily eliminating them from the rules entirely. To me this is more of a half-baked idea than just getting rid of them entirely.
First let’s look at Rule 13-4:
13-4. Ball in Hazard; Prohibited Actions
Except as provided in the Rules, before making a stroke at a ball that is in a hazard (whether a bunker or a water hazard) or that, having been lifted from a hazard, may be dropped or placed in the hazard, the player must not:
a. Test the condition of the hazard or any similar hazard;
b. Touch the ground in the hazard or water in the water hazard with his hand or a club; or
c. Touch or move a loose impediment lying in or touching the hazard.
I didn’t show the exceptions as they would not be relevant if the rule was removed.
If you get rid of the rule what could you do that you can’t do now?
1) Test the hazard.
a. You could take a practice swing and touch the sand.
b. You could rake the sand at any time if rakes were available (side note, there is some discussion that this might be allowed in 2012).
c. You could stick a tee in the sand right behind the ball to see how deep it was as long as you didn’t improve the lie. (See Decision 13-2/27)
2) Touch ground, sand or water in a bunker or water hazard as long as the lie of the ball or area of intended swing is not improved.
3) Remove loose impediments including stones, leaves, branches etc.
4) You could brush away a clump of sand behind your ball in making the backswing for a stroke that was completed.
5) If the definition of addressing the ball was also changed, you could ground your club lightly behind the ball.
6) Rule 26 would still be on the books so you would still get relief from a ball in a water hazard.
7) If bunkers still were defined as they are today, you would not be able to escape them using obstruction relief or unplayable in any way that you couldn’t today. If they were removed, you can get a get out of jail free (or almost free) card.
As to what it would do for architecture, I doubt much would happen. Today’s golfers are spoiled enough to still want perfectly maintained bunkers, therefore they would still want rakes. The one thing that might happen is that the boundaries between bunkers and the areas that are through the green could be less well defined, leading to more transition areas such as you see to the right of the 13th green at Pacific Dunes.