Sand Play

Sand Play: Where Knowledge is Power.

By: Bruce Munch

Head Professional, White River Golf Club, Rochester, VT.

“OH NO, I am in the TRAP *! @#$%^&*^%”. This is a common cry of dismay heard daily on every course in the world. The dreaded sand trap. The sad thing is that with a little understanding and knowledge, this fear could easily be eliminated. Thanks to a gentleman named Gene Sarazen, almost all of us carry a club designed for just such a purpose.

The story goes that in the 1920’s, Sarazen got the idea for his revolutionary new club while watching ducks land on a pond. The ducks came in at a steep angle but when the back end of the duck hit the water, the vertical momentum was translated into horizontal momentum, and the ducks came to rest on the pond. By taking his wedge and building up the back of the club with solder, he created a club that would slide through the sand, rather than digging into it. Sarazen had added bounce to his club. Bounce is the height of the back end of the club, relative to the leading edge. In the modern sand wedge, at address, the trailing edge is closer to the ground than the leading edge. When this built up trailing edge hits the sand before the leading edge it duplicates the “duck phenomena” and changes vertical momentum into horizontal and the club slides cleanly through the sand instead of digging in.

Every golf video about sand play encourages an open stance. This is a stance where, for a right-handed golfer, the toes, knees, hips, shoulders and eyes are on a line pointing left of the target. They normally don’t tell you why. The reason is that such a stance enhances the effectiveness of the bounce and adds loft to the club. From this position, even with a very steep angle of attack, it is virtually impossible to dig the club into the sand if contact is made with the sand an inch or two back of the ball. In setting up in this open position be sure to keep the ball position in the center of your stance. Even though you are leaving the club open, your swing should still be parallel to your toe line, as in all shots. Failure to do this will make it difficult to pass the club under the ball. The energy we are imparting to the sand will cause the sand to lift the ball out of the bunker.

The steep angle of attack is important because the steeper your angle of attack the higher the ball will come out. If faced with a high bunker lip, this is the only way to get out. In Physics, we call it, angle of incidence equals angle of reflection. Try it with a flashlight. Start with the flashlight pointing directly to the mirror. The beam comes right back to your face. Move the beam to the left and the reflected beam moves to the right. The more you move it to the left, the more the reflected beam moves to the right. The same is true of the bunker shot. The steeper the angle of attack, the more vertical will be the path of the ball.

So why is it that most golfers have such a problem executing this shot? In reality, it is not a difficult shot because this is the one shot in golf where we are not trying to hit the ball. We are trying to hit an inch or two behind the ball. The most common mistake is caused by fear of the club burying in the sand, which leads to a decelerating swing, which stops just after impact, resulting in a shot that does not get out of the bunker. First and foremost remember this, if you accelerate the club through impact and FINISH THE SWING, you will more than likely get out of the bunker. Make a backswing that gets to shoulder height and finish on the other side at shoulder height. It may not be pretty but you should get out.

Now, you may ask, how can I hit the beautiful, soft shots the pros hit out of bunkers? The answer is easy, practice. Sand play was always a great part of my game and fellow players would sometimes ask why, until they saw that the “S” on the bottom of my wedge was practically worn off from practice! At White River Golf Club we have a beautiful practice bunker. A few years ago, I asked the owners if we could offer a bucket of balls that normally sold for three dollars, for a dollar, with the provision that they all be hit out of the bunker at least once, they could then be collected and hit again at the range. Not a bad deal! As I recall, we sold four of those specialty buckets all season.

Every year, when the tour is on the Florida swing, the comment is made that the pros would rather be in a bunker than chipping out of the notorious Florida Bermuda grass. This is because the sand is more consistent than the Bermuda rough. Skilled pros can usually get up and down from the bunker about 60% of the time.

So, next time you go to a range that has a practice bunker, spend some time hitting bunker shots and soon, on an errant shot, you will sound like the pros when you say “Don’t stay in the rough, get in the bunker”.

Send your comments or questions to: golfpro@vermontel.net