A day in the sand - fault finding?

[Oddsocks]

So I’ve recently been struggling in the bunkers, I’m noticing that I either skin it into the lip or play a complete pop up shot which will carry the lip with a few foot of carry. Great with a tight pin but if the pin is more then 15ft away I’m screwed. I’ve always been solid out of bunkers but this year it’s all gone to pot.

About 3/4 weeks ago a similar thing happened and I saw a tip online as to set the club face as an appropriate degree of openness as to aid using the bounce, but do this before addressing the ball etc, IE at the point of grilling. For longer shots keep the face more square and vary this to control the distance. It was all going well until this weekend.

Fast forward to tonight and off to the practice ground to try and work it out. Drawing a line approx 3inches behind the ball I’ve noticed that I’m striking the sand between 2-6 inches behind this line, effective 6-9 inches behind the ball. Great for tight pins but it’s almost like I’m Getting stuck behind the ball … in a bunker!

Been using this video for guidance, any other tips would be great as the pro can’t get me in for a sandy session this week.

Cheers
SandySocks

 

[IanM]

I feel your pain. Since covid I'm awful out of bunkers. Going to have a specific bunker lesson next week!

I should add it's my home course bunkers where I have the most trouble too!

 

[spongebob59]

 

[Oddsocks]

Interesting, I’ll have a play.

 

[bobmac]

It sounds as if you're hitting the sand too far back.
Without seeing the swing it's hard to tell what's going on but the common mistakes I would see were

• Weight on the back foot at impact, trying to help the ball into the air.
• Incorrect ball position with no weight transfer
• Quitting on the shot with little follow through

 

[Oddsocks]

Bob, was it you in the bushes with the video camera?

 

[jim8flog]

Without being able to see your swing. I know amongst my mates the poor bunker players have the following faults.

1. They try to hit the sand too hard.
2. They swing too fast.
3. They quit on the shot i.e. virtually as soon as they hit the sand they stop swinging and it is very rare to see the club go beyond the 9/3 o'clock position. (fear of hitting it too far)
4. They do not truly understand what opening the club face means. I.e they take their normal grip and then open the club face by turning their wrists instead of turning the club in the grip so it is held in a different position in the hand to their normal grip.


I cannot think of a single circumstance where I would want to enter the sand more that 2" behind the ball. For me when it happens it means a duff, with the ball going way short of where I intended it to.

 

[Oddsocks]

I fully get the concept and tactic in sand play Jim but there seems to have been a complete brake down in technique or clearly lack of. It’s garlic to say our bunkers are not great, but this struggle is out of no where.

I did notice yesterday that towards the end of a “ fault finding “ practice session, placing the ball more towards the front foot, slightly squatted or seated to stay lower with a longer follow through was helping but this was still only up to a max of 20 yards.

On my course there are a good few bunkers 20-30 yards short of the green and with a back pin this could end up a 60 yards shot.

I definitely get the hitting it to hard part, and this just compacted the problem more. I did notice as well as hitting approx 6-9 inches behind the ball, the exit point of the sand was around the same infront of the ball with a shallow scrape of maybe 10mm ish.

 

[Jason.H]

I fully get the concept and tactic in sand play Jim but there seems to have been a complete brake down in technique or clearly lack of. It’s garlic to say our bunkers are not great, but this struggle is out of no where.

I did notice yesterday that towards the end of a “ fault finding “ practice session, placing the ball more towards the front foot, slightly squatted or seated to stay lower with a longer follow through was helping but this was still only up to a max of 20 yards.

On my course there are a good few bunkers 20-30 yards short of the green and with a back pin this could end up a 60 yards shot.

I definitely get the hitting it to hard part, and this just compacted the problem more. I did notice as well as hitting approx 6-9 inches behind the ball, the exit point of the sand was around the same infront of the ball with a shallow scrape of maybe 10mm ish.

Try using a PW/9 iron hitting your normal bunker shot. Should get more distance without putting in more effort. Open the face for more height if needed.

 

[chrisd]

Without being able to see your swing. I know amongst my mates the poor bunker players have the following faults.

1. They try to hit the sand too hard.
2. They swing too fast.
3. They quit on the shot i.e. virtually as soon as they hit the sand they stop swinging and it is very rare to see the club go beyond the 9/3 o'clock position. (fear of hitting it too far)
4. They do not truly understand what opening the club face means. I.e they take their normal grip and then open the club face by turning their wrists instead of turning the club in the grip so it is held in a different position in the hand to their normal grip.


I cannot think of a single circumstance where I would want to enter the sand more that 2" behind the ball. For me when it happens it means a duff, with the ball going way short of where I intended it to.

I did most of those bad things very recently and my confidence completely went. I then kept still, weight more on the left side, soft knees, down the shaft a bit, swung slower, more wrist break on the backswing and on the way out of the sand. Worked for me, I won Sundays big comp and got out of three bunkers comfortably.

 

[IanM]

Similarly, watching this, I was having too much weight on back foot and not completing the swing.

Played much better yesterday ?

 

[Oddsocks]

Cheers for the advice guys. Played today concentrating on ball further forward, 70% weight on left foot and softer hands ensuring I swing through to the top and it was a lot better.

Need some time on the beach to practice but a big improvement.