Question: Foreign substance on club face

[Bulls9999]

Consider this rule:
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Can I apply a substance to the clubface to either reduce spin or increase spin? top
No, Rule 4-2b states that foreign material must not be applied to the club face for the purpose of influencing the movement of the ball. Any coating designed to influence the movement of the ball by either increasing or decreasing spin, or to have any other effect on performance is not permitted.
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Now the situation:

Today I was in a fairway bunker and blasted out onto the fairway. Being tired, **** about the half-round gone awry, I didn't bother to brush the wet sand off that coated my 56-degree wedge and I used it again for the next shot to get onto the green. I hit a great shot but for sure the sand on the club really gripped/spun the ball that hit the green and stopped dead like a fuzzball on velcro.

Quesion...does that constitute a foreign substance on a clubface as specified in the rule above?

[Fourputt]

No. You didn't deliberately apply anything to the clubface for the purpose of influencing the ball. It was deposited there in the normal course of play, and I have never seen a rule that requires you to clean your clubs between strokes.

I personally wouldn't have left it there as it was just as likely to have deflected the ball at an unpredictable angle, or more likely to have actually caused the ball to skid rather than grip the face. IMO, you just got lucky on that one.

[Bigvivec]

That constitutes lazy... ...that's all...

[jcgolfpro]

No violation as Fourputt says.

You have to apply the material to influence the ball and if we were required to clean our clubs between every shot, I'd be in trouble.