Bunker problem today

[otto6457]

Hey all

I had an unusual bunker problem today that blew up a decent round. I was in a green side bunker to the right of the green, facing a shot where my ball came to rest on a severe upslope. The pin was about 30 feet away. I was facing the back of the bunker with pin at 90 degrees to the back of the bunker.

The bunker is deep and the ball was almost 2 feet above my feet.

Here was what I attempted to do:

I used my 56 degree wedge since it has more bounce than my 60 degree, and I opened it up as normal. (about 45 degrees) The ball was so far above my feet, I choked down on the grip about an inch. I aimed about an inch behind the ball and took a swing as normally as I could.

Well.....the head passed under the ball so cleanly the ball did not even move from it's spot. I analyzed the situation again, and I didn't think my swing was that bad. I tried again...with the same results......and again. Each time, the club just passed under the ball and the ball settled a little deeper into the resulting depression.

I finally just squared the club up, aimed 2 inches behind and blasted it out with the resulting roll leaving me 25 feet past the hole. I missed the putt and walked off with a smooth little 7.

I was absolutely stunned. I have always been a pretty good bunker player, but I don't guess that in all the years I've played have I had a bunker shot with the ball that far above my feet.

So......is there a technique I have never learned for this shot, or is the square blade blast the best choice?

 

[Chris Sturgess]

That is really weird. Probably what happened is the bounce was negated by the ball above feet lie since the club head was probably not lying in relationship to the sand as it normally would. So the toe of the club just sliced through with no bounce instead of the actual bottom of the club with bounce. It would probably be the same relationship as if you had a flat sand shot and addressed it with the ball only inches from your body so the toe is down. I'm not positive of any of this but I suspect it is all I'm saying. Try hitting that same shot again somewhere and stand farther from the ball and squat down a little more too maybe, so that the flange of the club is parallel to the angle of sand you are hitting off of like it would be on a flat shot.

 

[otto6457]

Thanks for the reply Chris.

I played today and I tossed a couple of balls in the same bunker while waiting for the next tee to clear and tried to recreate the shot again. It looks like you might be right. It looks like when the ball is that far above my feet, the open club face makes the wedge play more like an 80 degree wedge. There is just not much up and down in the swing. The bounce just disappears and it's like a baseball swing where the flange and the toe of the club are on almost the same line and they both just pass under the ball.

The only way I could get the ball out was to square the wedge up. If I opened it more than just a few degrees, the club just passed right under the ball.

I learned something today.

 

[Chris Sturgess]

Nice recreations, those are always fun. I agree that squaring the clubface on those shots is a really good idea, you'd have to have your hands really low to pull off the open face and that's just way to awkward. I guess it's one of those situations where you can't expect too great of a shot and just having a par putt from somewhere on the green is the number one priorty.