sand help please

[c_mack9]

im a high handicapper and i have never had a lesson in my life and never will. please give me the basics of getting out of sand.

[lamebums]

im a high handicapper and i have never had a lesson in my life and never will. please give me the basics of getting out of sand.

Get a sand wedge, with a lot of bounce (it will show on the club as, for example, 56*10). Open the clubface and aim to your left. Take a much larger swing than usual, and hit about two inches behind the ball.

[Mhinderaker]

I actually rather prefer a lob wedge and a little bit of a shallower swing, I just get far more consistent results.

[seattlemudder]

Get a good sand wedge and then read Harvey Penick's little red book on how to hit out of the sand, best advice I've ever had on how to play out of the bunker.

[lamebums]

I actually rather prefer a lob wedge and a little bit of a shallower swing, I just get far more consistent results.

Not ready to disagree - more out of laziness rather than anything else, I'd hit my lob wedge out of a greenside bunker after leaving my previous flop shot well short, and in the sand. I get pretty consistent results with both clubs, as well.

[powerhitter]

To play a basic sand shot:

Ball is on top of sand around the green:
Aim the face of your sandwedge at the flag, then open the face slightly (aim slightly right of the flag). Next set your feet position to where you would aim at the flag, then pull your left foot back slightly. You want to take a steeper swing than you normally take (slightly more upright basically), and hit about an inch behind the ball and finish with a follow through based on how far you want the ball to go. Half follow through for a short bunker shot, 3/4 follow through for a longer shot, full follow through for a pretty long shot.

Ball is buried in the sand around the green:
This one is kinda hard, you normally want to aim at the flag, then close your club face (aim slightly left of the flag). Feet position should again be slightly left, and hit down about 1/2 an inch behind the ball with an even steeper swing than above. The reason to do this is because when you slam the club face into the sand it will open up backtowards the flag.

Fairway bunker ontop of the sand:
Take about 1-2 clubs higher than you would normally take to get the ball to the flag, and choke up on your club slightly (put your hands slightly closer to the shaft) and take a nice easy swing, the ball should come out by itself.

Fairway bunker buried in the sand:
You are screwed... lol. jk but you probably can't get it to the green, club up and hit a kind of a punch shot, just try to make contact with the ball doesn't matter if it gets to the green or not.

[Shindig]

im a high handicapper and i have never had a lesson in my life and never will. please give me the basics of getting out of sand.

Others have answered the sand portion, and I have nothing to add to that. But I want to ask: why 'never will' on the lessons?

[powerhitter]

No one understands your body better than you do, but no one understand the golf swing better than a pro. You should atleast video tape yourself so that you can improve on your swing basics if you are never going to see a pro. I would highly suggest that you see a pro at some point and time before you engrain some really bad habits which may take months to get rid of.

[hurley9192]

a good drill is the "A" drill...

place your ball in the sand, draw a line from your target starting about 2 feet in front of the ball through your ball and about a foot past it. Then draw the other leg of the A at a 17 degree angle which would be your foot line. Then connect the two legs with a line that stops 2 inches behind the ball. You stand along the open line and swing along the open line. You align the clubface along the target line and hit the sand at the cross in between and follow through under the ball.

I think Dave Pelz illustrates it in his Short Game Bible.

[c_mack9]

Others have answered the sand portion, and I have nothing to add to that. But I want to ask: why 'never will' on the lessons?

im pretty good at figuring it out on my own. i just dont have much experience from the sand is why i was asking about it. i dont want to pay a pro for what i can teach myself in practice. i took about 4 years off from playing and just getting started back this year so im shaking the rust off. im improving something everytime i play but last week i got in the sand and it took me 3 trys to get out. i usually dont swing hard enough cause im affraid im gonna blade it across the green.

thanks for the tips guys, when i get time im gonna get in the beach and see if i can stick it near the pin.

[sandtrap]

follow through, follow through, follow through, way too many guys are afraid and they try to slow down at the ball.
Get angry, swing hard, hit 2-4 inches behind the ball and FOLLOW THROUGH.

Visualize your hands as a bowl full of sand with the ball sitting in the middle. Now throw it up in the air toward the green. Thats the perfect sand shot.

[powerhitter]

follow through, follow through, follow through, way too many guys are afraid and they try to slow down at the ball.

4 inches wow you must be doing some heavy excavation at the courses you play ^^.

Also you need to remember in addition to what I posted earlier (that is when you get a hang for those things) you then need to factor in what type of sand you are playing out of. "Beach" as I like to call it is just about pure sand through and through, you can dig down like 5 or 6 inches and its the same as the stuff on the top. Then there the "professional" sand which there is not to much of the fluffly stuff, it tends to bottom out into hard stuff about an inch or 2 deep. I actually like the latter kind of sand because if you hit it right you can get the ball to really check up

[sandtrap]

[QUOTE=powerhitter;55611]4 inches wow you must be doing some heavy excavation at the courses you play ^^.

I guess I must be really angree, there is only one rule of sand play.

1) get out of the sand

2) see rule 1

[c_mack9]

[QUOTE=sandtrap;55612]

4 inches wow you must be doing some heavy excavation at the courses you play ^^.

thats 2 rules