90 Yard Bunker Shot?

How do you try to hit a 90 yard bunker shot?

Yesterday, I was faced with a 90 yarder with a clean lie on firm sand with a slight up slope and OOB long.  I have been pretty good on longer (110 to 200 yards) fairway bunkers this season, but never felt comfortable on this one and bellied it OB with my sand wedge.

I hit my lob wedge about this distance with a full swing, but went with the regular sand wedge here.  Maybe the extra bounce was a mistake?  After hitting it OOB from the clean lie, I chunked it out from the semi-burried after my drop and started the round with a triple.  While best avoided, any thoughts on how to not get a semi-buried lie when dropping into a bunker?

On a more positive note, I hit a really good shot on what should have been a harder 60 yard bunker shot 5 holes later.  I played this one similar to a normal bunker shot, but with a bit harder swing and a little less sand behind the ball.

Did you blade the sand wedge? Realistically, I'm not hitting a fairway bunker shot longer than 100 yards - even with a full swing - unless I hit my SW really thin. In your case, PW probably would have brought OB into play, so I would have done exactly what you did. My only advice off a firm sand lie would be to not choke down as much as you normally do. Firm fairway sand is pretty similar to hitting off a hardpan lie, so I would just take a normal swing and hope you pick it clean.

Sorry, but I have no advice on your second question (the drop), though!

LOL.  My comment in the rules thread we are discussing about OB rules regarding flying one into a hazard over the green happened an basically this exact same stype of shot ... and I did exactly what you did.  It was a perfect distance for a gap wedge if in the fairway, so my thought was to take one extra club.  Whoops.  I picked it perfectly, as if I was in the fairway, and off it went.

From now on, unless it's really soft sand, from about 80 yds and out, I think I am just going to take the normal club and try to make sure I get ball first.  (Unless of course, the trouble is short of the green, then I'll take extra)

I take at least one extra club, try and keep my lower body still with more weight forward than normal, take less than a full swing but do try and make a good turn, and try to make excellent contact down through the ball but not behind the ball. Distance is still a bit of guess, even on good shots, so I aim to a safe area of the green (or just in front of the green and expect a rollout).

Full swings from fairway bunkers are disasters for me.

To avoid the buried lie from a drop in the bunker -- I have no idea. If I get one, I play it like I'd play a ball in a divot on the fairway. Make great contact and swing firm but easy.

This might help http://youtu.be/xDJ7FsuGHZA

Yes, I bladed it which is something I was doing early season with too many pitches on the fairway from this distance, but have not been doing recently.   Had I made perfect contact with the SW, it probably would have been the correct distance or at most the back of the green.  One of the reasons I didn`t hit the gap wedge with less bounce is that I didn`t want to bring the OB into play with a well struck shot and it seemed too far for my lob wedge which also has less bounce.

I have been pretty successful with longer fairway bunkers recently (hit a 5i from 200 onto the green the round before this one), so I don`t know why I felt so uncomfortable on this shot.

One reason that I might have felt less comfortable from this distance is that I make a bit different swing with my pitches (inside about 125 yards) compared to my full shots, so I really haven`t hit many pitches in the sand compared to full shots.

You might check out Dave Pelz in Short Game Bible , Ch. 9 - The Sand Game.

He recommends using PW, 9i and 8i for longer bunker shots.  He suggests testing the 9:00 and 10:30 swings on sand shots with different clubs to see how far the ball goes.

Twice this season I had a 95-yd. uphill fairway bunker shot - ball sitting up nice - on Hole 3 at a local course. I opened the face of a PW slightly, and picked the ball fairly clean. I got a par and a bogie for my efforts.

For iffy shots, pop it out safely to in front of green, and play for up-and-down. For future, practice a la Pelz and see how far different clubs go from the sand.

I would suggest just what WUTiger wrote, I use a PW or 9 iron and make a partial swing, trying to pick the ball.

+1

This would be a smooth sw for me. I say smooth because I try to keep the legs stable and not as active as in a normal swing for more precise contact. Generally this would mean a club less, but for my sw it equates to about 15 yards so 90 yards is about right.

On 90 to 30 yards bunker shots I generally try to put my weight on the front leg. I do not dig too much with my feet, just a bit to stay put. Then swing making sure I hit ball first and then sand.

then just adjust the back swing to get the distance, but the more firm the sand, the more similar the back swing would be to being on the fairway

hope this helps

This, more or less, except I wouldn't personally use a club with a lot of bounce.  I'd play a normal 90-yard shot with a GW:  face slightly open, stance slightly open, 3/4 swing with the lower body quiet, choke down about an inch to accommodate for the fact that your feet are sinking into the sand a bit and you want to make sure you hit ball-first.

That's pretty much my setup for any FW bunker shot.  1-2 clubs extra, face slightly open, play a slight fade using a less-than-full swing and hit the ball first.  I'm not a great FW bunker player, but I'll hit a solid shot most of the time, and hit the green about 1/3 of the time from 170 and in.  I'll also play this shot to a conservative target, knowing that distance control is going to be iffy.

I have no idea how to make a good drop in a bunker, so I'd try like hell to make sure I don't have to do that.