Swing tip out of the sand

[PEZGolf]

The courses in our area have a great variety of types of sand (brown, white, etc), with different densities. It takes a lot of knowledge to play well consistently out of them. Here is a tip given by Gary Player to Mary Lawrence, the Head Coach for men and women at St. Lawrence University in Canton, NY when she was competing in college tournaments: "Hard sand---soft hands; soft sand---hard hands", and then he demonstrated. He is right, of course----he is one the great sand players of all time.

[ganjagolfer]

great tip from gary, thank you! we've had some big rains around here that have flooded the traps and left them muddied, what kind of hands for muddy traps? sweaty hands?

[Smallville]

I had heard that before, never knew it was Player who said it; good advice that I need to remember, thanks for the refresher.

[PEZGolf]

great tip from gary, thank you! we've had some big rains around here that have flooded the traps and left them muddied, what kind of hands for muddy traps? sweaty hands?

In muddy sand, this is what I do, and it does work: hit closer to the ball, and use more of a punch type shot rather than a normal explosion. The ball will roll more than normal, so you have to allow for that.

[Augusta Hacker]

Can you explain what he meant by hard and soft hands?

[PEZGolf]

Can you explain what he meant by hard and soft hands?

Yes--grip pressure. In soft sand, there is more resistance from the fluffy sand, so you need to grip a little bit tighter. In hard sand, you need feel, and you want to a lighter grip on the club. Most average golfers do the opposite, and get poor results because of that.