Sand Trap Question

[MattGlen]

I played a course over the weekend that had rather hard sand traps. The traps that I normally play are pretty soft. My question is how should I play the differnt style traps?

[Shindig]

I played a course over the weekend that had rather hard sand traps. The traps that I normally play are pretty soft. My question is how should I play the differnt style traps?

Hard sand vs. soft sand, I presume? My observation is that the harder sand responds better to lower-bounce clubs, so if the sand appears hard, I'll use my 51.7 or 46.6 instead of 56.14 ; if I were playing courses with predictably hard sand regularly, I'd get a 56 or 58 with low bounce to use.

[SubPar]

If the sand is really firm and the lip is not too high, I take Pelz's advice and chip the ball out with a PW or something like that.

SubPar

[Shindig]

If the sand is really firm and the lip is not too high, I take Pelz's advice and chip the ball out with a PW or something like that.

This sounds good. How do you go about this? I can hit an iron out of the sand but can't imagine a solid chip coming out easily. Just hover & chip?

[HotBite]

I open the face and my stance alot and basically flop it...works every time for me..

[SubPar]

This sounds good. How do you go about this? I can hit an iron out of the sand but can't imagine a solid chip coming out easily. Just hover & chip?

Pelz suggested once on TV that most of us should consider "picking" the ball out of a greenside bunker rather than immediately going to the explosion shot. If the conditions allow for it, I will hover a 9 iron, PW or GW behind the ball and then hit a little chip shot onto the green. You have to be sure to catch the ball first and follow through without taking sand between the clubface and the ball. I can get the ball pretty close this way.

SubPar

[Long_Ball_Bogey]

This sounds good. How do you go about this? I can hit an iron out of the sand but can't imagine a solid chip coming out easily. Just hover & chip?

I had to play this shot on Sunday while playing a course notorious for crappy bunkers. I took a 60.08LW b/c my 56.14 bladed across the green from the same bunker a few weeks back. The "sand" was about as thick as clay, so I played the ball back in my stance & did the "hover & chip" over a 2ft lip--surprised myself and my playing partners b/c we all thought I was screwed. I recommend practicing the shot if you get the chance--it's a good one to have in the bag! -LBB

[hawkeye]

For hard/compact/very wet/no sand I concentrate on a slow tempo, gliding the club under the ball, with a lower bounce club. For longer shots, I'd take a pitching wedge (47) and open the clubface slightly, execute as before with a slow swing and be sure to catch a little sand first.


I usually play out of this type of bunker so I'm very used to it. When there's more sand, I hit the ball/sand harder with a more bouncey club.

[Avid Golfer]

I played a course over the weekend that had rather hard sand traps. The traps that I normally play are pretty soft. My question is how should I play the differnt style traps?

Like others have mentioned you'll benefit from using a low bounce wedge (lob wedge) out of firm sand, and a high bounce wedge (sand wedge) out of soft sand. In addition a tip you might find helpful (I learned it from Nick Faldo) is if you are in firm sand (or a downhill lie) put a little more weight on your forward leg, and if you are in softer sand (or an uphill lie) have you weight more centered, or on your back leg.