Golf Sand Shots, Don't Be Afraid of the Bunkers Cont'd, Long Bunker Shot

It is time to finish the Bunkers Series with Long Bunker Shots.

Sometimes these can be the most difficult shots because they are relatively uncommon.  Sometimes you have bunkers flat, with lips, rocks, soft and firm sand.

To play long bunker shots, say around twenty yards, you need to stand less open, with your club face only slightly open.  Put your weight forward on your left foot ad your and slightly ahead of the ball.  Play this off the center of your stance and you aim to enter the sand closer to the ball, about  three-quarters of an inch behind.  The set-up gives you more of a U-Shaped swing arc, a flatter one through the sand, which drives the ball forward.

During takeaway, still cock your wrists early as with the standard shot and you swing back slow.  During impact your left hand goes through ahead of the ball, your left wrist has a convex bend.  This will take loft off the club, so that the ball flies lower, with a "skip and bite" action, as you have entered the sand that much closer.

This technique will serve you well for all long bunker shots, but what do you do for the thirty and forty yarders?  Answer: as with a low running shot, you take another club.  If you are faced with a thirty-yard bunker shot, you would use your pitching wedge, not your 60-degree sand wedge.  When you are forty yards recommend your 9 iron.

One last observation on bunker shots: no matter what the lie, the average golfer usually leaves his sand shots will short of the hole.  So you need to work on this.  Recommend the next time you are out with your group on the weekend four ball, make a few friendly bets.  Anyone who leaves their shot short of the green has to pay 50 cents, or whatever, towards the drinks at the 19th hole.  I promise you it won't be long before you're getting up and down in two with the best of us.
 
Well, that is it for the bunker series and I hope you all have been able to take something with you.

If you have any questions, don't be afraid to ask and if you want me to talk about any particular subject I am open for suggestions.

It is winter again and not much time for working on your golf game unless you are in a warm climate.  See some of my previous blogs on working drills during the winter months.

Till next time, keep your self limber and warm.....

Golf Sand Shots, Don't Be Afraid of the Bunkers Cont'd, Low Running Shot

LOW RUNNING SHOT

When I have a lot of green to play with and the flag is on a plateau, this is when I would consider using this shot.  when you have a plateau to play to you don't want to pitch it directly on the plateau, because you could find it difficult to stop your ball rolling off the green into deeper trouble.

Play this shot planning your landing spot and the amount of run you need.  Play the ball off the center of your stance, with weight o left and your hands slightly ahead of the ball.  This technique is similar to that required for the low, spinning shot.  Only this time you use your pitching wedge instead of your sand wedge.

Open your club face and stance just a little.  This delofts the pitching wedge and allows the ball to fly out low.  Stand Closer to the ball and aim to hit to the sand about half inch behind the ball.    If you did this with your sand wedge the ball would bite, but the loft of the pitching wedge will send it running on the green.

Next we will go over Long Bunker Shots,

Until next time, Don't be afraid of the beach and learn to play in the sand......

Golf Sand Shots, Don't Be Afraid of the Bunkers Cont'd, Low Spinning Shot

LOW SPINNING SHOT

Another shot you want to add to your bag is the low bunker shot that bites on the green.  As all shots, they are made in the set up, this one is opposite of the high shot, although, still just a variation of your standard shot.

You play this shot with the ball off the center of your stance.  Have your weight on your left side as usual and your hands, with your normal grip, are lightly ahead of the ball.   Don't set up very open and the club face will be a little open from square.  Also, stand closer to the ball and aim to hit into the sand closer, perhaps half an inch behind it.

By opening your sand wedge very little - is delofting it - resulting in the ball coming out lower.  Reason you get more spin is that you have less sand between club entry and ball.  The ball should land on the green, take one bounce and then grip firmly.

Next we will go over the Low Running Shot.

Until next time,  keep your shot low and your spin hot....

Golf Sand Shots, Don't Be Afraid of the Bunkers Cont'd, High Shot No Spin

HIGH SHOT NO SPIN

This shot has a very similar V-shaped action, although there is little spin on landing.  You need to play this shot sometimes when you're in the deep greenside bunker and there is little or no green between you and the flag.




To successfully hit this shot, you set up with the ball even more forward toward the left foot.  maintain a wide stance, but this time you should set much of your weight on your right foot.  This shot you will place your hands slightly behind the ball, having your right hand turned well to the right, as you are aiming for an even earlier flip action through impact.

You will strike the sand farther behind the ball than for a standard shot, about two and a half inches behind the ball.  The extra sand will help provide no backspin, just a high flying ball that drops gently and stays put.  Once you have set up correctly, just swing back with a smooth tempo and strike the match.

Next I will write about low spinning shot.

Until next time, enjoy the sand and bring your shovel.....

Golf Sand Shots - Don't Be Afraid of Bunkers Cont'd - Making the Short Shot

We have gone over the past few blogs how to overcome fear, understanding why the traps or bunkers are there, strategy, types of sand, bunker designs and now we will go over how to hit the shot out of these bunkers.

We will take a look at shots out of Fairway and Greenside Bunkers.

Before we go into those bunkers let me just state the standard shot from a good lie is called a splash shot because it is played with feeling; gently, yet firmly, without the sheer force used in an "explosion" shot from a difficult lie.  The basic fundamentals, you dig your feet in, bring the right, open your stance, keep your weight left, cock your wrists early and swing back slow, then strike the match, splashing through the sane under your ball.

Once you have mastered it through plenty of practice you will have a general purpose bunker shot in your bag.  You will also be well on your way to mastering even the most difficult sand saves.  The action you are practicing I used in every type of bunker shot you play around the green, with different variations of set up.  From long ones of 40 yards plus, high shots with no pin to low shots with plenty of bite and short shots of a few yards away you only need to understand how to adapt the basic shot to gain real confidence n the sand.

SHORT SHOT

On these shots that have good lies he shorter the shot the more you open the club face.  For a shot just over the front lip of a bunker, say four or five yards of green to play with, I stand so open that my body almost faces the target area, with the club face as open as you can.

Grip the club with your left hand in the usual position, but your right hand strengthened a little, turned more to the right, so that it is under the left through impact.  Play the ball off your left heel, with weight on left side and plan to enter the sand about one and half inches behind the ball.  As stated above slow takeaway with same tempo, cock the wrists quickly and the backswing is full.  Timing a shot with a short swing is difficult, although you must guard against decelerating the club from a full one.  Swing like you are striking a match.  Remember when striking a match and you go easy the match won't light.  You have to pull the match quickly through the striking area firmly so the stick will start the fire.

The set-up creates an abrupt up and down, almost V-shaped, swing arc, which gets the ball up quickly.  Your positioning of the right hand allows it to flip under the left through impact, which farther increases the loft of the club and holds the club face open.  This action has your club face go through the ball slightly ahead of your hands and there will be a concave break in the back of your left wrist through impact.

This will give you two point to bear in mind.  If you don't practice this shot, swinging with a wide open club face often results in you hitting the ball with the hosel or the neck of the club, driving it deep into the bunker face.  When you start practicing it, try addressing the ball more off the toe of your sand wedge rather than the center of the club face.  Remember also, your ultra open stance and club face will put a lot of cut, or slice, spin on the ball.  On a level green, it will spin to the right o landing; something to think about when you're picking your target spot. 

As I continue writing about the Golf Sand Shots, I will cover the High Shot without Spin next.

Until next time, while in the sand keep your tempo smooth........

Golf Sand Shots - Don't Be Afraid of Bunkers Cont'd - Strategy

Well I have informed you about sand and bunker types now we are going to talk about Strategy.

Since you have gained an understanding of bunkers your attitude toward them will start to change.  As you start to play any hole, you start to think hard about its defenses, real or imaginary, and the bunkers in particular.  First, especially when the course is new to you, get a feel for the sand, which you can check out at the practice bunker by walking in it and digging your feet in.  You note what the sand type is, softness, or well-packed down and try to estimate the effect it will have on your shots if you find yourself buried in them.

Secondly, checking the layout of the bunkers on every hole and figuring why they are positioned that way.  You will see which ones you can play toward, the ones you can flirt with and the ones you must avoid.  Sometimes the bunkers frame and guard a specific area narrowing the fairway target making you play toward them, not giving you an option.

When faced by a cross pattern of carry bunkers stretching diagonally across the fairway, or a luster of them guarding a dog-leg and inviting you to try a little too hard on your approach, don't get to greedy.  You don't want to face to tough a recovery by risking too much.

By understanding bunkers, it can really help you score better by revealing how best to tackle any hole.  You will gain confidence, particularly if you practice your sand shots, even taking a lesson or two on them from your local professional.  In fact, most pros will tell you that they prefer to find themselves in a bunker rather than in deep rough, because they can generally control the ball much better from the sand.

Confidence is everything in golf.  It comes from practicing thoughtfully on and off the course, understanding the course and the techniques and, above all, from a positive mental attitude.  Golf is very much a mind game.  You are constantly contending with weather frustration, the course, stress and luck - the "rubs of the green".  You can't combat luck, but you can certainly control yourself and develop a positive mental attitude.  When playing with my friends and they hit a bad shot they tend to get frustrated and start attacking the mental attitude by stating what a bad shot.  I turn toward them and explain the good point of how their shot made out, such as you have a better angle to the green.  You landed in the bunker instead of the thick rough and so on.

To many golfers today go out there and let the frustration and course beat them before they even start.  Think positively.  If you are standing at the tee box and looking out to the hole and you see yourself as an unlucky golfer, if your positive you will get a bad bounce off your drive and roll into a bunker of plunge into the water, or going into the trees, then you will.  Stay positive, see yourself going down the middle of the fairway hitting long and straight, chip like a pro and putt like a champion, then you have a head start on the whole thing.  What you think, you will be.  If you think defensively, you will play negatively.  Think positive and you will play positively.  That doesn't mean I am positive I am going to play bad.

Never brood on past failures.  Your out at your home course and you remember your long drive down the middle of the 1st tee, that will allow you to take positive attitude toward the start of your game.  Don't recall the times that you hit your drive into the deep rough to the right of the fairway bunker.  Clear all the negative thoughts from your mind.  Think only of the times that you made great shots.  The long 15 foot putt you drained or the 3 foot putt you holed for your first birdie or eagle.    It is up to you to bring the memory of those shots, because your competitors surely won't.  They will probably remind you of those bad shots.

So when you go out to play and end up in the bunker, think of them as your friend and not the enemy.  Strategize what the bunkers are there for to help you decide what your outcome will be.  Learn the different sand types and practice hitting out of the bunkers so you an make them work for you and not against you.

Until next time, when we learn about shot making from bunkers, if they are your friend then they will make you happy and help your score instead of ruining your score......

Golf Sand Shots - Don't Be Afraid of the Bunker Cont'd - Sand Types

To continue with the information on Sand Shots - Don't Be Afraid of the Bunker you want to get as much knowledge of what you are dealing with so you can remove your fear.  Fear is not having the understanding or information necessary to accomplish what you need to do with confidence.

Sand Bunkers

All sand is silica (SiO2) but its composition varies to a certain degree all over the world.  Almost all golf courses use the natural sand found in their location. 

In he tropic, many golf courses have bunkers filled with coral sand, which contains  fair amount of shell in it.  As a result, the grains are quite large and pack together loosely.  When a ball lands in one of these bunkers, it will tend to sit up on top of the sand and be played out without problem.


Sand on inland tropic courses is usually made out of limestone.  This type of sand will allow you to play out with backspin and control, unless it's ground too finely in which case it tends to produce buried lies, from which you cannot get backspin.

Generally, golf courses use local sand to save cost, some designers specify very white sand for aesthetic reasons.  The very pure silica sand is often imported from Idaho in the US or comes from Australia.  While the bunkers may provide a beautiful contrast with the rich green fairways, the sand grains are too rounded and mobile, so your ball will tend to sit down well in them and you're not likely to get any control when you blast out.

Golfers worldwide are fortunate, what most common type of sand found in bunkers is river pit or beach sand.  This tends to have hard, gritty grains on which the ball sits up well.  Some river sands however, can be contaminated with silt, which will cause it to set like concrete when wet.  Too much of a shell content will attract worms on inland courses. Beach sand is often so fine and in St. Andrews, the home of golf, sand for the bunkers is carefully taken from a particular pat of the beach where it is just course enough.

Sand is the shape of its grain, and this comes in eight different grades of granulation which is the most important factor.  Quarry or Pit sand has very angular grains which tend to bind tightly together, but some sea sand is too rounded and as a result too mobile.  Very fine sand usually blows out of the bunkers on windy courses and often sets with a "crust" in certain conditions, proving an unfair hazard.

Sand  that allows the ball to plug excessively and offer an unstable footing is course and rounded.  The ideal composition is a medium grade of sand, of some 2.5 mm in size and semi-rounded.  This gives a firm surface from which water will drain away well and you can play off in most circumstances with confidence.

When playing different courses golfers generally get knowledge of the types of grass on fairway, rough, and greens.  They generally never ask what is the composition of the sand in order to understand what type of lies and or shots will be required during the course of their round.  With the above information you should have a better understanding and idea of how you will need to hit shots which are determined by the type of sand you are hitting from.

Next blog we will cover Bunker Types.

Until then......If you don't understand the conditions at the beach stay out of the sand......

How Do You Deal With Bad Golf Day - Dealing with Disappointment

How you deal with stress and what you do when you let yourself down is important to character building.  The easy part of the game of golf is when you are playing well and everything goes your way.  The scores are excellent and all your shots have the right bounce.  You don't have to think about feeling good it just happens.  You express yourself in a positive well mannered way.

I always want to be in the situation above because it feels so good.  But, the game of golf has a funny way of bringing the bad bounces, short puts, missed shots which bring you to feeling not so good, anger, disappointed, and flat out annoyed of the game you love.

As I stated above it is easy to deal with stress in life and golf when everything is going your way.  What do you do when it isn't.

Well in the last tournament I played I witnessed some professional golfers on how not to react.  I have also seen in the years of playing golf how the average golfers react.  During the tournament last weekend one of the players was frustrated enough that he threw his putter across the green.  Another player cursed and expressed himself very loudly in a negative manner.  This led to the golfers continuing to play bad the rest of the game and not score very well.  Doesn't mean if they didn't do that they would score better, but they would have a better chance of changing the outcome.

Every golfer expresses themselves differently.  It is the ones that don't let the game and the bad shots get to them that helps motivate the average golfers to see that the game is a pleasant game and not as Mark Twain once stated 'Golf is a great walk ruined'.

Don't get me wrong, I have moments in golf that are stressful and full of missed shots, short putts, and bad scores.  It is the attitude you bring that helps you get through.  The past weekend tournament nothing would go right.  I couldn't figure it out, but accepted the fact that nothing was going my way.  The more I tried the more it went array.  With four holes left I realized the key was to start taking it a shot at a time instead of a hole at a time and I was able to par out.   A little late, but I was proud that I was finally able to work out the issues and get the game on track even though the round was over and the score I shot wasn't good enough to win the tournament.  I was disappointed, upset at myself for allowing me to play badly, but the positive was at the end I figured it out.  I try to look at golf and life as positively as I can.   This allows me to enjoy myself even when things don't go my way.






I enjoy playing with any level of golfer except the ones that throw clubs, get angry and blame everything but themselves.   I think the worst golfer is the best golfer that shows his......

Ways you can work through the bad times during the round and after the round (you can use this for life also):

• Acceptance of how things are going.  Remember acceptance is the answer to all our prayers.
• Get out of your own way.  Quit putting yourself down.
• Remember this too shall pass.  After the shot is hit, it is over.
• Find the good in the shot, even though you might not see it.
• Be positive and show enjoyment.  Someone might be watching and that might keep them away from the game.

Everyone has bad days, sometimes they go on for a while.  Remember that through the help of Jesus Christ the waters will calm down and the streams will flow right.  Then you will have the game of your life. 

Until next time, keep your dreams alive by continuing to go forward even though sometimes you go backwards
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Tournament Time - US SENIOR OPEN QUALIFIER - HILLWOOD CC, NASHVILLE TN - Practice Day

Practice Day for the US SENIOR OPEN QUALIFIER - Hillwood Country Club, Nashville, TN

It is time to test my skills against the elements of the course.  The layout of US Open courses, regardless of whether Senior or Regular Open, is the toughest test in the game of golf.  The USGA sets the course up to the extreme to make the golfers use their skill and knowledge to concur the course.  If you are not looking forward to this kind of test, then my advise is to not enter and just watch.

I arrived last night and staying at the Four Points Sheraton in Brentwood, TN, just 15 minutes from the course.  What a marvelous hotel.  This is the first hotel my wife and I have stayed in that has outstanding service and the rooms are fabulous.  We ate dinner at the Hotel Restaurant and food is superb!  We even talked with the Executive Chef last night at dinner.  He cares about what he puts out and the taste is fabulous.  It is a must to eat at if you are in Brentwood.  Also, they had a local musician playing acoustic guitar and singing during the dinner.

Well, this morning I am getting ready to go to the Hillwood Country Club to get my practice round in.  I am looking forward to getting the layout of the course and see how my game is shaping up.

Until after the practice round, remember practice makes progression not perfection.