All of Kiawah Island's 30 acres of sand is classed as waste areas and not bunkers
PGA Championship Venue Kiawah Island Has No Bunkers
It’s official, this week’s PGA Championship venue, Kiawah Island’s Ocean Course, has no bunkers.
To the delight of caddies and volunteers, no rakes will be needed as all of Kiawah’s sandy areas are just that – ‘sandy’ or ‘waste’ areas.
This means that players will be allowed to ground their clubs, remove loose impediments and even make practice swings.
However, that doesn’t mean that competitors will be allowed to improve their lies or conditions as per Rule 8, titled ‘Course Played As It Is Found’.
There’ll be no rulings like we saw in 2010 when Dustin Johnson missed out on the playoff at Whistling Straits after grounding his club on the 72nd hole.
The sandy waste areas at Whistling Straits in 2010 were classed as bunkers, which is why DJ was penalised.
However, at Kiawah they are not classed as bunkers and the official course report shows Kiawah Island’s Ocean Course to have zero bunkers.
In total, 30 acres of the property at the Ocean Course is sand so we’re sure to see plenty of players hitting out of them this week.
They’ve been classed as waste areas ever since the course’s inception, with it being built for the 1991 Ryder Cup, known as the ‘War on the Shore’.
The course is set on 2 1/2 miles of Atlantic coastline, with 10 holes being set on the Ocean.
It is the longest in Major history at a whopping 7,876 yards, although there will be some forward tees to help out players, especially with winds forecast.
The rough has also been left alone for a month and it’s not expected to be cut during the week, therefore the players at the top of the PGA Championship leaderboard will likely be the ones who hit the most fairways.
Already this week we’ve heard Jon Rahm talk about moving tees forward to protect players’ “sanity” and we also witnessed Ian Poulter hitting a driver into the par-3 17th hole.
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