You’ve pushed your approach shot and now you’re in a dreaded greenside bunker. To make matters worse, the sand is wet and firm. There are so many options: do you open the blade or close the blade, hit closer to the ball or further away?
Instead of automatically reaching for your 56° sand wedge, try your pitching wedge. The key to playing from wet or very firm sand is picking the ball as cleanly as possible. Think shallow swing and little divot.
The pitching wedge is a good choice for this since they tend to have less bounce than sand wedges. Pitching wedges also tend to have more blunt leading edges, preventing them from digging into the sand. To guarantee success with your pitching wedge keep two things in mind. First, it is important to play this shot with as little bounce as possible, opening the blade adds bounce to the club, so keep it square. Second, since the pitching wedge has less loft than the sand wedge, make your swing a little shorter than normal.
With those adjustments in mind, and now that club choice is done: dig into the sand with your feet, square the blade, swing shallow, and go sink your putt to save par!
Forget all of these instructions, practice getting out of a sand trap and settle for what’s best for you.
If you can find your best stance and swing for any shot, use it. Who is to say you’re wrong if it works for you?