Tips for "softpan" shots

[WUTiger]

Softpan is a new term I've created for damp, scruffy, tight lie areas of springtime, which would be hardpan in dry summer months.

General advice for hardpan is to take a low-bounce club and hit the ball first; a high-bounce club might ricochet off the hard ground, and lead to a skull shot.

In damp spring weather, these shots can go fat if you have a low-bounce club which digs in to the bare soil amid the grass clumps. Solution: take a high bounce wedge - I use a 54.12 - and hit a smooth pitch shot. The bounce will keep you from digging in: If you're a little fat, it will come up a little short, not 20 feet short. If you're a little hot, the softer green will give you some backstop.

Give it a try, an see if it works for you.

[Gioguy21]

with a name like 'softpan' isn't that an oxymoron? can't you just hit down on it like any other shot, thinking ball first (which, shouldn't you be doing anyway?)...since you don't have to worry bout the ricochet bounce as you called it...what's the issue?

[sean_miller]

Originally Posted by WUTiger

Softpan is a new term I've created for damp, scruffy, tight lie areas of springtime, which would be hardpan in dry summer months.

General advice for hardpan is to take a low-bounce club and hit the ball first; a high-bounce club might ricochet off the hard ground, and lead to a skull shot.

In damp spring weather, these shots can go fat if you have a low-bounce club which digs in to the bare soil amid the grass clumps. Solution: take a high bounce wedge - I use a 54.12 - and hit a smooth pitch shot. The bounce will keep you from digging in: If you're a little fat, it will come up a little short, not 20 feet short. If you're a little hot, the softer green will give you some backstop.

Give it a try, an see if it works for you.

I assume you've also experienced the effect of a very slightly sunken lie where the ball seems to take a bit of extra force to leave the ground? Less than perfect contact and the club digs while the ball flies short. Cohevise tension or poor contact, either way I don't care for those shots.

[Harmonious]

On really wet fairways, your feet sink down just a little bit.  For that reason, if you don't choke down an inch or so, you have a good possibility of hitting it fat.

[iacas]

Originally Posted by Harmonious

On really wet fairways, your feet sink down just a little bit.  For that reason, if you don't choke down an inch or so, you have a good possibility of hitting it fat.

I never understood that, and I've never had to adjust for that kind of stuff. I grip the club in the same spot, I probably just stand an extra half inch or whatever farther from the ball. The same method we use when we switch from a 7-iron to a 6-iron. The club's longer, so we just stand a teeny bit farther from the ball.

I don't grip down when the ball is slightly above my feet either. I stand up a little teeny bit taller and stand back a teeny bit.

Not to say gripping down isn't effective - just that there are more ways to skin that particular cat than "grip down."

BTW, I like the term "softpan." It's some sticky stuff and any less than perfect contact results in disaster, often even more so than hardpan in my experience. Using the bounce gets trickier too because the "softpan" is likely to scuff and slow down the clubhead quite a bit prior to impact as well. Softpan requires better contact than hardpan!

[LuciusWooding]

I went out yesterday and I hate the stuff. Not only is it soft and muddy, it's uneven and it's like hitting out of a divot every time. The ball always manages to sit down, and causes bladed shots if you don't dig like crazy. Not to mention you can't pick the ball as easily, so for shallow swings it can be a huge pain in the neck. Plus both the ball and club get totally covered in mud every shot.

The only way to beat the stuff imo is to hit the ball hard and aggressively, even on shorter shots. You can't decelerate and you can't hit the ball fat, but hitting ball first is really hard to do without thinning it. Chipping is a big pain and shots using the bounce or an open face have worked, but it took so much force to land them where I wanted. You really need to hit pitches hard or manage around being near the green. The greens themselves were easy to stick, but sucked for putting.

I'd prefer to be 130 yards out instead of around the green at some courses because the area around the green is so bad, and wet bunkers suck mightily as well. It affects the partial shot by more than a full iron and  I'd rather be playing off cement sometimes as opposed to the fairways this time of year. The grass is just too weak to drink the rain until they fertilize it and it gets time to grow. I hit tee shots great, including with irons, and did fine on fairway shots, but partial shots killed me yesterday. It was a great strength of my game when I practiced on a drier green last week, I hit any shot I wanted, but I either left the pitches short or skulled them yesterday. The change in conditions really threw me, though I learned a lot that round. Guess I should get one of those cleveland niblicks next time it's damp like that.

[poser]

Our course is like this right now and I usually just make sure to hit down on it a little more

[TourSpoon]

I love the "softpan" term. Here is a similar thread from a few years ago. I found that taking a lesser lofted club along with hitting a committed shot was the best way to go. For the times you have to hit wedge, use one with adequate bounce and accelerate. http://thesandtrap.com/t/9107/tight-but-mushy-lie

[WUTiger]

Quote:

...since you don't have to worry bout the ricochet bounce as you called it...what's the issue?

The issue is that the ball is setting partially on damp ground with tufty grass in the way. If you hit down on it with a low-bounce club, chances are it will dig in and cause you to hit a fat shot - unless you get perfect strike.

The high-bounce sole will prevent the wedge from digging in and giving you a fat chunker. {High bounce + softpan} gives you finesse: a shot slightly fat won't dig in, it'll come up a few feet short, and and slightly hot shot will catch on the damp green.

Originally Posted by Harmonious

On really wet fairways, your feet sink down just a little bit.  For that reason, if you don't choke down an inch or so, you have a good possibility of hitting it fat.

H, this is also solid advice when hitting out of the rough. It your feet sink down in the grass, this can cause you to hit a fat shot, or one on the top part of the clubface. A slight choke up can prevent rough problems also.