Play Nice In The Sand
Sonner or later, everyone gets caught in a sand bunker. Many golfers have a tendency to panic but there is no need to do that. If you have practiced the necessary techniques and have a reliable sand wedge, for the prepared, sand play is no problem. Here are a few of my favorite tips.
Trying to a hit tee from under your ball is a good drill for getting your drives in the air. It's also a good drill for sand play. Here's how it's done: Tee up your ball in a bunker, and tee it up high. It is the tee from under the ball. Now tee it so that the tee is just barely showing. Hit it out again. Now position the ball so that no part of the tee is visible, the bottom of the ball is flush with the sand. Practice until you can consistently hit the tee out of the sand, then play the same shot while pretending that the tee is still under the sand. The lesson here is that the golfer hits the sand and the sand lifts the ball out of the bunker. So at no point did you think of hitting the ball itself.
The longer bunker shot is one of the easiest shots to play and one of the most satisfying in the is entire game. Here are the six fundamentals of the bunker shot: 1. Choke down on the grip of the club to compensate for having to dig your feet into the sand to anchor your body. 2. Do not move the legs during a swing. 3. Take two or sometimes three extra clubs to make up for distance loss by the arms-and-hands-only swing. If you're within reach of the green, take as much club as you'll need for the ball to land near the hole. Because you're hitting down in to the back of the ball, the ball should have enough spin on it to stop quickly. 4. Play the ball in the middle of your stance so you can make contact before the bottom of your swing arc. 5. Always hit the ball first. 6. Don't ground your club. That's a two-stroke penalty.
Hitting from a buried lie in the bunker [otherwise known as a "fried egg"] isn't as difficult as most golfers think. In fact, a shot that gets the ball out is closer to a normal golf shot than a conventional bunker shot is. That's because you play the shot with your clubface closed. Remember that the flange of a sand wedge is designed to prevent you from digging into the sand. But with a buried lie, digging in is exactly what you want to do. Close the face of your wedge, hit down into the sand and inch or two behind your ball. This is one of the few sand shots in which a follow-through isn't just important, it shouldn't exist at all! Some golfers have even been known to let the club go at impact. Note; this shot can also be played with a pitching wedge, which is almost guaranteed to dig in.
Ad no matter what the circumstances, don't allow tension to ruin your techinque. Tension will ruin even the best of golf swings. Keep your body and your mind loose and positive. Always imagine yourself handling the shot with success. What the mind sees, the body will do.
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