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How To Play Sand Traps

By Lee MacRae

Many golfers have a tremendous fear of sand traps and bunkers on the golf course. Let's take a look at some handy tips to improve your play from the bunkers.

The longer bunker shot is one of the easiest shots to play and one of the most satisfying in the is entire game. Here are the six fundamentals of the bunker shot:

1. Choke down on the grip of the club to compensate for having to dig your feet into the sand to anchor your body.

2. Do not move the legs during a swing.

3. Take two or sometimes three extra clubs to make up for distance loss by the arms-and-hands-only swing. If you're within reach of the green, take as much club as you'll need for the ball to land near the hole. Because you're hitting down in to the back of the ball, the ball should have enough spin on it to stop quickly.

4. Play the ball in the middle of your stance so you can make contact before the bottom of your swing arc.

5. Always hit the ball first.

6. Don't ground your club. That's a two-stroke penalty.

When your ball is sitting up in sand on a rise that is caused by someone's footprints, don't be fooled into thinking this is an easy shot. Players tend to try to get the ball off the surface of the sand, or take too much sand in an effort not to hit it too far. Do the former and you may blade the ball. Do the latter and you may hit it fat. This is an instance where you want to hit not under the ball, but down and through it. Take your spot, about two inches behind the ball and slightly below it [because of the rise] and swing as you would for a normal chip shot. If you're still worried about getting it too far, move your weight back to your right foot. This will force you to swing more with your arms and will take some power out of the shot.

Because every golfer wants to get up and down from greenside sand, there is always a great pressure to hit the ball close from a bunker. The fact is, however, that a top pro who gets up and down half the time is doing very well indeed. For this reason you should not concentrate on hitting sand shots to tap-in range [that is, to within three feet] as you would do for a long putt. Focus instead on hitting to within a target that's 12 to 15 feet in diameter. That gives you up to 7 1/2 feet to play with on each side of the hole can be much easier bull's-eye to deal with. You'll be more relaxed and will hit the ball even closer.

Once you have a feel for the basics of playing from sand, you can easily understand some of the finer points of bunker play, and you will find it easy to adapt your technique to different types of sand challenges and lies. Make your golf game more enjoyable with good sand play.

About the author

Lee MacRae runs several online stores where you can find a great golf training aids or a great golf iron today!

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