Tommy Fleetwood admitted he was victim of a poorly raked bunker on day one of the 2025 Open that led to a bogey on the 5th.
The Englishman’s tee shot ended up in the sand down the right of the short par-4 5th and he unfortunately found his ball in a tricky spot right where the bunker had been raked.
He duffed his ball barely out of the trap and went on to make a costly bogey in his opening round of 73 (+2).
Bunker raking has been a topic of conversation this week after the R&A confirmed it is not using bunker rakers for the 153rd Open as per previous years, with players and caddies needing to do the job themselves.
“Yeah, it wasn’t a great – yeah, it wasn’t a great rake job,” Fleetwood admitted.
“I probably could have managed it – first thing is I was not very happy to be in there. That was the first thing, so that’s my fault.
“It was like in somebody’s hitting mark that hadn’t really been raked great. I probably could have managed it better.
“I tried to hit what I thought was the right shot, like kind of duff something because I knew I couldn’t get any sort of strike perched on the ball so I tried to duff it, but then you’ve got to get the height as well.
“So that was a bit harsh.”
Jim ‘Bones’ Mackay commented on Fleetwood’s bad luck on the broadcast, saying he wasn’t sure he’d ever seen something like it before.
(Image credit: Getty Images)
“Whoever played from this bunker previously forgot to rake it, the caddie did,” the legendary looper said.
“Tommy now has an awful lie, lucky to avoid the footprints that were made by the previous player.”
As he was on the green, Mackay went on to describe it as “an awful break” and “one of the worst I’ve seen the entire year for him.”
Paul McGinley also had strong comments on the matter.
“What a break for Tommy,” the Irishman is reported to have said on the USA Network feed.
“I don’t know what the rule is for the R&A, but certainly on the DP World Tour that caddie would be getting a big fine.”
While the player in question remains unknown, reports suggest that English amateur Sebastian Cave had been the most recent player to visit said bunker. Whether it was his rake marks is unknown.
Fleetwood admitted that having bunker rakers “would be handy” after Billy Horschel called the decision to remove them as “odd” and…
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