Why Do We Hit Sand Instead of the Ball First in Bunkers?

[DrvFrShow]

3 minutes ago, Double Mocha Man said:

What I have discovered with hard, crappy, crusty sand is that you have to still get under the ball, which means consciously forcing the club and its bounce down into the sand.  Generally not opening the face as much to protect from too much bounce... digging in a bit, but controlled.

If the ball is sitting not at all embedded and is sitting on the hard crust, just chip it. If there's like 1/2 in powder over the firm undersurface, grab your 58/8 c-grind, open it up flat and thump it out - kind of like that flop shot you hit off the mats.

 

[Double Mocha Man]

1 minute ago, DrvFrShow said:

If the ball is sitting not at all embedded and is sitting on the hard crust, just chip it. If there's like 1/2 in powder over the firm undersurface, grab your 58/8 c-grind, open it up flat and thump it out - kind of like that flop shot you hit off the mats.

 

Many of the greenside sand traps in this area have steep banks... so in most cases chipping is not an option.

[DrvFrShow]

Good thing I practice hitting a flop shot off the mat then. 😄

Edited April 24, 2020 by DrvFrShow

[2huskys]

If the ball is sitting nicely in a fairway bunker you have no choice but to pick it clean to get maximum yardage to reach the pin.  If you try and pick it clean and hit it a fraction heavy the ball will go no where.  If its sitting down you have no choice but to "dig it out".  Greenside bunkers - Its far easier and far more consistent to splash them out with the sand using the bounce by hitting behind the ball about an inch or 2.  It allows for a much bigger margin of error than trying to chip it clean from the bunker.  If you splash it out and hit a cm fat (from your intended 1 to 2 inches behind the ball) you will still get a good result.  if you try to chip it clean and hit it 1cm fat it will likely stay in the bunker. This all depends on the sand as well.  wet hard compacted sand you will likely try pick it of anyway.  Thick  soft deep sand its better to splash it out. 

[iacas]

33 minutes ago, Double Mocha Man said:

What I have discovered with hard, crappy, crusty sand is that you have to still get under the ball, which means consciously forcing the club and its bounce down into the sand.  Generally not opening the face as much to protect from too much bounce... digging in a bit, but controlled.

Yeah, feel ain’t real or the same person to person. I feel like I’m often hitting the ball on the upswing from greenside bunkers.

[bwdial]

My tendency to hit the ball a bit fat has always made me a bit above average when it comes to the greenside bunker.  I've never felt terrified of bunkers, and always been pretty comfortable hitting out of them.

[Double Mocha Man]

2 minutes ago, bwdial said:

My tendency to hit the ball a bit fat has always made me a bit above average when it comes to the greenside bunker.  I've never felt terrified of bunkers, and always been pretty comfortable hitting out of them.

Good point.  Almost always hit the ball fat out of greenside bunkers.

[Buckeyebowman]

On 4/21/2020 at 12:05 PM, colin007 said:

This being true, isn't it also true that pros tend to nip the ball closer to the ball instead of the 2 inches behind like most of the rest of us peons?

That depends upon the grade and the dampness of the sand. How close you are to your target. Is it a greenside or a fairway bunker? Really, greenside bunker shots aren't all that hard. You just need to find a facility that has a sand bunker to practice from. I finally did, and learned how to do it. I was using a lesson from Paul Azinger in Golf Digest way back when. He said that the ball is NOT your target, the sand is. All you want to do is "splash" the sand, and let it carry the ball out of the bunker. 

But, you have to take this with a grain of salt. Pros play immaculately maintained courses. We, sometimes, do not! I remember a time when I, and a friend, were playing a couple of our buds in a 2 man scramble. On an approach shot my friend hit it a mile into the woods, and I hit it into a greenside bunker. My friend was in jail so we took my shot. I walked into the bunker with my SW, and the instant my feet hit the sand I could feel that it was close to as hard as concrete! It had rained much of the night before, and the bunker had not been raked. 

I thought, "Nope! Don't want this club!" I put the SW back in the bag and pulled a 9 iron. I nipped the ball off of the packed sand, and got it close enough for us to make the put and save par. 

Yes, there can be complexity. But, there's complexity in every golf shot.