Bunker Play

[User 105]

Guys, need some help here.

We have a number of bunkers on the course that quite frankly are shoddy. You never know if you have 2 inches of sand under the ball or a couple of mm.

As such it's hard for me to make a confident stroke at the ball.

If I swing too agressivly and there is mm of sand under the ball the club will bounce into the ball rather than underneath it and I'll thin it way over the green. If I swing to tentativly and it has and inch or so underneath it'll just pop up and either end up back in the bunker or just roll a few feet into the green.

Is there a technique I can use in these cases if I don't know what's under the ball as I can't 'test the lie' ?

 

[USER1999]

Lob wedge, opened up, positive swing, and take very little sand.

Failing that, write a letter to the committee/manager asking for more sand in specific bunkers.

Failing that, start hitting greens instead of bunkers.

 

[CrapHacker]

When you take your stance, bury your feet as far as you can.

It's still the best indicator of how much sand you've got.

 

[USER1999]

You need to be a bit careful on this, as you are only allowed do do this enough to make a stable stance.

 

[coolhand]

Excuse me ignorance but I have what is probably a daft question:

If the ball isn’t buried why are bunker shots not just the same as a normal shot off a tight lie?

 

[RGDave]

I guess because the amount you get your feet into the sand should be the same as the amount you get "under" the ball on it's sandy lie.

or was that not your thought?-

It IS possible to play out of bunkers like a pitch shot of similar distance not in the sand, but you'd have 1% margin for error. Catch the sand even 1 cm too early and you'll still be in the bunker.

I practised the "clip it off cleanly" idea many years ago to deal with tight lies off virtually no sand....(muni courses!!) but it's a waste of time. Sooner or later, you'll hit a disaster one.

Proper bunker technique needs to be used for any consistency. If the lie is terrible, try a square face shot, taking away some of the bounce.

These are my thoughts, forgive me if none of them make any sense.

 

[CrapHacker]

You need to be a bit careful on this, as you are only allowed do do this enough to make a stable stance.

If you can do it enough for a stable stance, you'll have enough sand for a half decent splash effort.

If your feet only go in a squidgilionth of an inch you have to think again.

I wasn't recommending taking in a bucket and spade

 

[JustOne]

Excuse me ignorance but I have what is probably a daft question:

If the ball isn’t buried why are bunker shots not just the same as a normal shot off a tight lie?

If you look at it like that then it is the same, but there isn't normally a 3/4/5 foot lip to get over. On tight wet sand you can clip them off the top if you're feeling confident.

 

[coolhand]

RGDave/JustOneUK > Ah-ha! Makes perfect sense now. no getting out of learning bunker shots then. Many thanks