Grounding Club In Bunker w/ Ball Outside

Just a random question about grounding your club in a bunker. On Friday at the US Open Retief Goosen's ball was outside of the bunker and the USGA director stated that he was allowed to ground his club in the sand that was outside the defined margin of the bunker, which makes total sense.

Lets say I have a shot where I'm behind a greenside bunker and I have to shoot over it to the green. Am I allowed to go into the bunker and ground my club/test the firmness of the sand when my ball is outside of the bunker or is that a 1 stroke penalty even though my ball is in the rough behind it?

The only reason you'd do it, I know this sounds kind of stupid, but if you duff the shot and it ends up in the bunker than you kind of know what to expect. Now I do believe that is positive thinking!

You are allowed to ground your ball in the sand but only lightly. You must not test the surface

See Decision 13-4/1
www.randa.org

I'd say testing the hazard is testing the hazard.

Did you read the decision?

"Ball completely embeded in bunker" --?

Maybe he meant decision 13/3:

Q:Is a ball in a bunker if it lies on the edge of the bunker overhanging, but not touching, the sand?

A:No. The margin of a bunker, unlike that of a water hazard, does not extend vertically upwards.

If your ball is not in a bunker you may test the condition of any bunker.(Rule 13-4) However, you may not improve your lie, area of intended stance or swing, or line of play. (Rule 13-2)
Decision 13-4/1 says you may only touch the sand lightly if the bunker is in your line of play.

No Decision 13-4/1. The one I mentioned in my first post dated 8/20/2005.

Ah. Now I get it - that's much better.