Hitting out of the Texas sand

Okay, I don't know what it likes in other states, regions, etc..... but I have never played a course in Dallas or the surrounding area where the sand was anything like what you see on tour, or even in the magazines that give tips on playing out of the sand.

It's dry, hard, clumped together, brown..... not the fluffy white goodness that I have not had the pleasure to play out of.

So here's the question to you Texas golfers (or anybody else who plays in this stuff), do you play out of the sand the way the magazines and instructors on TV tell you to? I do, but I always have seeds of doubt of whether or not this is correct, and any golfer knows that is not the way to address any ball.

And anybody who replies to this thread with "don't hit it in the sand" gets a swift kick in the cajones.

Most of the courses around here have very nice sand and I can glide an open sand wedge right under the ball making float out like a feather. At my course (at least the one I play most often), they put in what I think is a construction grade sand that is full of rocks, etc. It is deep and will make your club dig in even laid wide open with a shallow swing path. I've adjusted by squaring my clubface and stance to the target line and putting the ball back in my stance and letting the club enter the sand no more than 1" behind the ball. There is a small margin of error, but the standard sand shot will not work unless the bunkers are wet.

I tend to remind myself to REALLY accelerate through the ball with a little bit more wrist hinge...

I think I know what you are talking about. I played a course in Hawaii that had really hard (not difficult;hard as in firm) bunker sand with very little "excess" sand, so it was really hard to get the club under the ball and "take some sand". It was so easy to blade it.

I play a lot of munis in the Austin area. I've definitely never seen "fluffy white goodness". Most of the bunkers have gotten either wet and very packed, or caked and dried out. The texture looks like something you would grab in bulk from Home Depot.

I'm a pretty decent bunker player around here. Here's my best tips for coping: BIG #1: Know thy bounce. I play between 10 and 12 degrees of bounce in my wedges (56 and 60 for greenside bunkers). Any more and I skip the clubhead, any less and I dig. Your bounce has to fit not only your conditions, but how your swing works in the conditions you play it in. If you are a digger, adjust. If you are a slider, adjust. BIG #2: Read the sand. Is it "fluffy" (Texas fluffy ) on top, but hard an inch down? Is it baked on top, but soft underneath? The first will cause you to skip, the second will cause you to dig, or skip, depending on how thick the top layer is. You want to know going into the shot whether the tendency will be to skip the club, or dig the club, depending on the sand. BIG #3: Take less sand. Taking less sand is scary, but if you take too much around here you open yourself up to inconsistency. A lot of bunkers have varying levels of moisture throughout the bunker. If you pass through one of these, you are changing the dynamics of how the sand will affect the shot. Taking less sand reduces the risk of this happening. BIG #4: Be aggressive. This is always tough with #3 above, so I try to use a 60* and open it a tad. This makes me confident that I wont fly the green with a big swing and it will come out high and soft with a lot of spin. Especially since I took a lot less sand. My goal on my normal bunker shot is to fly the ball 2 feet from the hole, bounce, and check...depending on conditions of course. Other than that, my bunker swing is pretty much like my flop shot swing: get the club hinging early, don't accelerate too much, keep the body turning, keep the feet planted, etc. I try to be "long and lazy" and have confidence in my initial judgment about how the shot will play out.

Does anybody ever chip out of the sand in these conditions? I guess I could always give it a try.

If you hit the shot with a square face then your club will dig deep in the sand. The bounce comes into effect when you open the face up and it glides instead of digs under the ball.

My buddy gave me this shot. If the lip and sand is just right, he just putts it out with a 3W and launches it like a dirt bike.

Always complete the followthrough on bunker shots.

I know what you mean with muni Texas sand. I basically use the open stance, swing along stance line, open club face, enter the sand 2 inches behind technique. Enter the sand with the rear edge of the sand wedge.

If the sand is hard (often found on Munis) I use the same stance and swing, enter two inches behind, but more with a gouge technique with the leading edge entering first. Choking down on the grip and completing the follow through help to prevent digging.

I have tried other techniques (Pelz recommends opening way up, skimming through the sand, entering as much as 4 inches behind the ball. This is very difficult on Texas Muni Sand

ive played in sand like that alot and no if you try like the magazines tell you its almost impossible to hit em good,i try to pick them as clean as possible when sand gets like that

That should be the case, but it isn't for whatever reason. I played a different course yesterday and used my typical bunker shot (open face/stance) and voila, I was parking it close. Something about the bunkers on my home course is just weird. I've never experienced anything like it anywhere. It is contradictory to everything I know about sand play.

I play the austin muni's a lot too. At one time I could hit the sand and hit "proper" sand shots.... but the conditions always change. for the past few months ive had to deal with much firmer sand. like bunkerputt said..... you really have to study the sand. I kind of test the sand with my feet/club when walking in at first (my guess is this is illegal, but ive really been wanting to know a real rule regarding this. in any case... when every bunker on my home course is different..... i bend the rules. nothing pisses me off more entering a nice looking sand shot properly only to be greeted by harsh concrete-like sand a quarter inch into it.... and skulling the shot into the trees killing the squirrles..)

In the hard sand -- concretelike with quarter inch of actualy sand on top -- i recently started hitting normal chips. closed stance, mini divot... etc (except that its too concrete like to 'actually' take a divot).... ive been having better results out of sand like that than off the fringe!

but if it's not the concrete sand I just have to hope its soft. if its firm, then i just have to take a shorter swing and swing harder to get through the firm sand (not to be confused with the concrete sand!)