What's Your Worst Bunker Nightmare?

[RX Phoenix]

I'm a good bunker player, always get it out and sometimes get it up and down, so little did I expect the nightmare that happened today.

Hit a great shot out of a fairway bunker, drove the cart behind the green, wasn't sure where my ball was, so grabbed my new TP 58* wedge and a putter and went searching.

Finally found it short in a bunker, so I thought . . . no problem, dug in with the 58* and blasted . . . ball caught the slope and rolled back in . . . too much sand. I adjusted and blasted again, same thing, and again, then I realized that the 58 only had 8* of bounce and it was just digging into the sand. But it was too far to walk to the cart and change clubs, so I just kept trying, more adjustments, still couldn't get out, finally the 6th shot barely hung up on the slope.

I was right on the edge of losing my cool and making an excuse about the club to my playing partners, but kept my mouth shut. That's about the most embarrassed I've ever been on a course, it was just brutal .

That's one problem with a golf cart, sometimes you have to park it so far away and you don't 'always' bring the right clubs with you.

Do you have any bunker nightmares in your golfing history . . . i just had mine!

[EatDrinkSleepGolf]

I don't have any specific ones, just that I hate and I'm almost scared to be in them. I know what to do to get out of them, just have trouble executing it.

[SSandlin]

I have a couple actually. One was experienced and the other was just witnessed. There is a bunker somewhere on the course at Celebration and it's a pot bunker that you have to use a rail timber ladder just to get down in the bunker. I climbed down in it and, at 6'7", my buddy could not see the top of my head. There's just enough room in there to be able to swing your club and try to pop it out. We both hit a couple of shots for the heck of it, but if I would have ended up in there, it would have been a scary sight.

The second is one that actually happened to me not too long ago. I ended up in a greenside bunker that had a face on it that was about 8 foot tall. It was about 40 yards from the green and had another bunker between it and the green. I'm sure you pros probably don't think much of it, but to a beginner, it was not much to enjoy. Thankfully, the open sand wedge had just enough loft to it to get it up and onto the green. I had to give it about everything I had though.

[Mikeland]

Ugh....this past Sunday comes to mind...I seemed to find every green-side bunker on the back nine...and they were all wet and poorly raked. I'm no expert, but man, it sucked! In one of the bunkers I ended up in someone's heel print and proceed to blade the ball over the green and into the woods... Ugh...

[gas_can]

I'm a good bunker player, always get it out and sometimes get it up and down, so little did I expect the nightmare that happened today.

Rx Phoenix,

This is a pretty easy fix. Just open your wedge even more, aim a little further left and swing a bit harder. The more you open your wedge, the more dynamic bounce you are adding to the club. Next time you find yourself in the same situation, just remember to open up the club even more, you will never have this problem again.

[Naruto]

...hmmmm...

not sure my 54 is a low bounce wedge...10* and its the primary tool for me in the bunker...i have no problem getting it out and i would go so far as to say that i expect the ball to be within a few feet of the hole....my best shot came when John, my golf buddy, got stuck about 6 inches from the lip of a greenside bunker that was about 6 feet to clear, to a pin tucked right behind it....so he has 6 feet or so of green to work with, with the green sloping slightly away from him...he walks in sets up looks at me and says this is impossible to get close...(whack...still in) a few swing later he's on and 20 feet from the hole moaning about the shot....

...i tell him its his technique and lack of confidence, he says you cant do any better...so i crawl in...set the ball 2-3 inches from the lip...grab the 54 open it up put the right swing on it and it lands just in front of the hole skips about 5-6 inches past and spins back 2-3 inches for a 3-4 inch putt for a birdie.....

this was on the 7th hole a par 5.....8 holes later on the 15th a par 3 with similar pot bunkers he says my shot on the seventh was luck and i cant repeat it....again i crawl in with two balls....set them 2 inches or so from the lip and proceed to hit them to within a foot of each other and 18 inches of the intended spot, being that the flag was back left we just picked a spot on the front approx. 6 feet on....same slight downslope.....

I personally prefer to be in a bunker as oppossed to short of the bunker in the rough....i can spin the ball a lot from the bunker but can't get any check or at the very best its inconsistent spin out of the rough.....

my nightmares involve thick grass.............at least the sand always reacts the same way or close to it....thick rough...too many variables...what kind of grass....which way is it growing...how much of the ball can i catch cleanly....how in the world am i going to spin this into a tight pin????

sand shots are some of the easiest if you think about it....its the only shot in golf were you dont hit the ball....2-4 inches behind it and it's going to be good. JMHO....

[mrpowerbilt]

You mean besides the time I almost broke a friend's wrist with a sh**k from a bunker?

Probably the double sided coin of If you are playing lousy you seem to find yourself in em' all the time. All that practice makes you a great bunker player but by the time your iron game straightens out, you don't find a trap in what seems like weeks and you guessed it: by that time you are a lousy bunker player again.

I love golf.........

[RX Phoenix]

You mean besides the time I almost broke a friend's wrist with a sh**k from a bunker?

You do understand golf don't you!

I can go round after round and not get in any bunkers, then one round a few weeks ago I was in 9 bunkers in 9 holes . . . I was in bunkers I didn't even know were on the course. I guess that qualifies as a bunker nightmare.

[J.P.]

Wow! Those all sound like stroke losing nightmares. How about this.

Long Par 3 over water - hit it long into a sand trap behind the green. Step in there and seems to be no sand - mostly hard pan. Set up to it then pulled the trigger - bounced the club off the hard pan into the ball - sent it shooting like a bullet five feet off the ground. Little did i know my playing partners had worked their way around to the front of the green to look for balls in the lake. So, I am watching the ball, racing away head high, heading straight for the three of them. I yell out "four"! - watch out! etc. . . only time enough for one of them to look up and take it square in the shoulder.

Unbelievable. I think we all know how close the shoulder is to the head.

I am still rather irritated whenever I find poorly maintained bunkers with no sand in 'em.

Sorry again if you are out there buddy.

[PowerPenguin]

I think the worst I have ever had was a plugged ball right under an overhanging lip. I just blasted it hard, it hit the lip and rolled back into the bunker. Then I spashed out and saved bogey.

Dave

[Jeepthrills]

Three years ago I was lucky enough to be playing Oakland Hills South Course with a client. I ended up in a greenside bunker that I could not see over the top of. I'm 6'8" so that's relatively deep. I set up and took a great swing. The ball popped up nicely and landed on the top of the mound. It stops dead then rolls backwards into the bunker and right back to my feet. I missed a perfect shot by about an inch. The next one stayed in as well. Finally on the third it cleared the lip and hung up on the mound. I managed to chip it close enough to one putt, but the damage was done. I was so shot that when I ended up in another bunker two hole later I did the same thing. Six shots in two bunkers en route to the worst 9 I had the whole year. I managed to rally on the back for a 42 and kept it under 100.

[Upright]

Fairway bunker, 175 to the pin over water. I thought it was simple enough. Good solid 6-iron should put me landing in the middle and run to the back, except for I caught it thin and plugged into mud under the lip. Took an "unplayable", dropped in the bunker. Then I proceeded to do it almost exactly the same way again with the ball stuck about a foot directly to the right of the first plug hole. Okay I might have cussed a little under my breath ... ... took another drop and proceeded to hit it fat and dump it in the pond. At this point there was definitely some verbalization of my frustrations, but I tried to stay calm. Took a drop from the hazard, pitched to 6 feet and made a nice curler for a quick li'l niner.

But it's a great game ain't it?

[BritBoy]

Once I bet my friends that I could birdie the longest par 5 on the course we were playing. We had a back wind and I hit driver from the tee, perfectly down the middle. I thought to myself that with the back wind I wanted to hit the bal higher than my 3 wood would go to get the wind to put the ball so I hit 5 wood. Awesome shot dead straight..... into the green side bunker.

The bunkers on number 5 at thorpe wood golf course in England have steps going down into them (should be illegal!!!). To cut a long story short, I was in the bunker in 2, and on the green in 15.

I lost that bet!!!!

[Smallfry]

I would have to say my worst bunker experience would have been the
time(s) I have skulled the ball from the bunker I was in, to the other side of the green into another bunker. That absolutely drives me nuts.