Sand Play

Aim: To familiarise you with a series of stock shots to cope with bunkers, and to give you an understanding of how to maximise your percentages in getting out of the sand and close to your target...

Early notes: I'm not really too good in the sand, and am hoping for more help on this issue, but for what its worth, this is what I do. I always use the snap point at 5 o'clock whether it's a fairway or greenside bunker. In a greenside bunker I use a chipping wedge and play the shot as I would a chip from the fringe, remembering that in a bunker you nearly always have an uphill lie, which equates to some extra loft in the shot. Once I've picked my distance ( see chipping ) I will aim for that, and use the new snap point to adjust the length, if I think Ive gone a bit too far I will snap before I get to the new point, but more often than not, I always let it go slightly past the new snap point so the shot comes out a bit hotter than intended, it still seems to stop pretty quickly and I find its better to get it out long than to go short. Remember also, the snap out of sand doesnt affect the aim, so if the green is flat near the pin you can hole a lot of bunker shots, even more than normal chips. In fairway bunkers I always find the ball comes out short, so I take one or two clubs extra and try for the new snap point, sometimes I will go 3 or 4 clubs up and increase the loft, but my main concern is to get out in one piece somewhere towards the green. Like I say, I havent really got to grips with LS99 sand yet, mainly because I avoid going in it ! ( a great sand tip ! ), but maybe that will help someone...
Further Notes: An amazing tip is to stay out of the sand (thanks for that bomber,yeah,yeah)....so use your practice rounds to find out which bunkers are typically in your way ( at driving distance or guarding flags) and change your game/mindset to avoid them. In mid-game, use your aiming pin to probe bunkers, especially near greens, you can then look at the profile information to see if its a deep black hole, or theres a bank in front of it. These really should be avoided at all costs, so again, play way away from these, even if it means being further from the pin than you'd like.You can make a multiple bogey in a heartbeat in the deep ones, try some of those at St.Andrews to see what I mean (like the "Sands of Nakajima" at the 17th in front of the green)

Main Sand Chart (my clubs)...distances for the main snap points

Club	6 o'clock	Halfway between 5 and 6 (approx)	5 o'clock (the new sand snap)	Halfway to end of meter (approx)	%age of dist. at 5 o'clock
yards
2W	41-77
3W	41-75
4W	41-72
5W	42-68	132-152	193-208	86-131	92%
3i	32-58	115-136	174-188	59-106	90%
4i	32-56
5i	31-51
6i	31-45	95-107	141-149	79-114	88%
7i
8i	29-40
9i	26-37	75-82	111-116	80-105	90%
PW	27-35	72-77	104-108	106-117	94%
SW
LW	19-23	48-51	69-71	103-110	89%

Sand Chart For Normal Shots + Loft ( ie these are NOT chips)..snap here is at 6 o'clock

Sand Chipping Charts (these ARE chips) hit at the sand-snap point at 5 o'clock

Chart to show the effect of missing the sand-snap on a chip-shot

Well, there's a hell of a lot of data included here, so I'll try to go through each table step by step and give my conclusions/advice in general terms, because as you know the last thing I want you to do is try to remember everything, much better to learn general rules and principles and then apply your creativity to a shot

1) The main Sand Chart
These were obviously hit out of a fairway bunker with no lie problems. First of all, when you are in a bunker and you're hundred(s) of yards from your target, you are going to have to try and hit this new sand-snap point. You'll see that when you are in sand, your meter is the same as before but with two little dots (why they couldnt draw a line I dont know!) at about 5 o'clock. This is your "pick-point", and by hitting this you are cleanly hitting the ball off the top of the sand, in a manner which hopefully will resemble Sandy Lyle's marvellous effort at the 18th of Augusta in the 1988 Masters (hoorah!). By leaving the snap until after that you are hitting the ball lower and harder, so you may well hit it further but you could also scuff the ball into the lip of the bunker. If you hit short of the new snap you are digging more sand with the shot and the distance is less. Cruel, isn't it how Access have created this so your carefully nurtured snap is now of no use, and you have to force yourself to leave the snap until 5 o'clock when the meter is really speeding...grrrrrrrrrrrrr..I'll also add that I'm not sure if it's possible to get a clean snap, so if you look at the diagrams above the snap line you leave is quite thick, not like the thin,clean line you get at 6 o'clock. If this is just me being crap, let me know and send a screenshot showing a nice clean line at 5 o'clock!
OK, first thing to notice is that even if you hit the sand snap correctly, you are only going to get about 90% of the distance of the club (variations due to slight variations in snap position...I hit as close to the right point as I could), so you should take more club, bearing in mind that by going up a club or two you are hitting the ball lower so you are more likely to hit the lip, but generally I take 1 or 2 more clubs depending on the approach shot and pin position.That's all there is to say about long fairway bunker shots, except if you fall in a pothole at St.Andrews dont come crying to me for help, I don't bloody know how to get out of those chuffs.Could be time for a sideways hack there in some of them ! You should also be aware that at champ level, the penalty is higher (as always) for missing the sand snap, and your club distances are much shorter, the ball just fizzes out low and ugly or high and choking, so be prepared to play even safer there...make sure you get out won't you ?haha
Now, if your bunker is within 80 yards of your target and the approach is quite reasonable, it's my advice (advocated especially by the likes of ErnieB and McAvoy7...thx guys) that you try to hit 6 o'clock. Not only is your game geared to that, but its a much easier target to hit.You'll see that because you are chunking a big bunch of sand with that, the distances are low, but provided you have the space to allow for the carry and roll, you'll get much more joy than trying to hit the sand snap with some lofted club in your hand.If you miss the snap slightly from 6, you'll just get an extra few yards or a few less, but at pro level this shouldnt be too severe.Since the difference from club to club is quite small i didnt bother looking at the effect of loft and uphill lies, you'll have to decide yourself how much extra to factor in to the shot and then take the appropriate club.

2) The Loft Chart
Well, what do you know, I did do some loft research after all ! This chart shows the effect of loft settings ( and can be applied as equivalent lies) on the two wedges I use for the main pip positions.Not much to say except it does make quite a difference,especially for the full 12 o'clock (16 pips) shot. Again, this is using the 6 o'clock snap point.The distance change with loft is not too different from their normal case.

3) The Chipping Chart
This shows the distances for chip shots hit with my wedges , using the new sand snap point, I only include 12 and 16 pips because I dont think it's a good idea to go less than that in case you stay in the sand, but you can see that by adding loft we can cover chips anywhere from about 15 feet upwards. If you are in the sand but less than 15 feet from the pin, please tell me what course you are playing !( just go a bit less than 12 pips then....)By the way, on chip shots the snap does not affect the line so for a flat green with no break its in the hole if you get the pace right. You can use your imagination here so if you dont hit the strength you want, just let the snap go just past 5 to get the ball out harder, or just before if you want to slow it down if you went too far on the meter. Again, although champ level is more severe with this, the meter goes pretty slowly on chips so you should be able to get the snaps pretty much where you want them.

4) Missed Snap Chip Shots
These were taken at a different bunker/green than the others so no angry letters please telling me the distances are a bit different. This chart is just so you can have an appreciation of how much distance loss you will suffer (at PRO) by missing the sand snap point.What you'll see is that generally for the pitching wedge, missing late on the sand snap will give you similar distances but the carry in the air is less, so the roll is more, this means on downhill greens or hard/fast ones you will get more distance as the ball flies off, and it can hit the lip because its going so low, but if you miss early then you will lose distance dramatically...hence, better to make sure you hit the sand snap or just after if you are worried about distance or focus on not letting the snap go past the proper point if you want to make sure it comes out.Similar for the LW, missing late causes the shot to land quicker but more roll, so slightly more distance. Because this club is lofted a lot anyway, it's definitely a good tip to leave the snap a heartbeat late and the end result will be very similar to hitting the sand snap properly, but as you will see the distance does go up quite a bit relative to the 5 o'clock. For this reason, if you have a 70 odd foot chip you might want to try a LW chip hit at full pace but leave the snap until halfway between the sand snap and right at the end..you'll still get 20 feet of carry but the distance only varies from 70 to 80 feet for a snap anywhere between 4 and 4.30 on the meter.

Top Tips:
Remember Sand is not my strength, nor is chipping, so be wary of my advice here (especially sand chips!) until you are happy with it (by testing it)
If you need a full club distance, take one or two more clubs and hit the sand snap to get about 90% of the distance of the club
Inside 80 yards use a 6 o'clock snap, more reliable, easier to hit and the whole clubset covers 25-80 yards.
Watch out for uphill lies, these are like added loft, which will affect your distance
Be careful of the lip on high bunkers, consider taking a more lofted club to make sure you get out even if you are short
Be aware that you can adjust the pace of your chip shots by missing the snap either side of the sand-snap

Back to Contents Page