Golf - Practicing with the sand wedge

Most average golfers do not have a place where they can practice sand shots, so it stands to reason that greenside bunkers are to be feared. Either you have trouble with distance control, or you can’t get out at all. If you ever want to get over this fear, you need to find a facility that has a practice bunker. If there are no such facilities nearby, you might have to be a little creative, like looking around for a park or playground that has a sand box, sand volleyball court, or a nearby beach.

Without a ball, grip the club with the face wide open (this prevents the club from digging too deep into the sand), and try to hit the sand in the same spot every time. This will help your confidence a lot. Then place a ball 2-3 inches ahead of that spot and make the same swing. Vary the ball position and see what effect that has on distance control.

If you are still having trouble, try a sand wedge that has more “bounce”, which is the downward angle of the bottom of your club measured from front edge to back of the sole. Some sand wedges have zero bounce, which is good for fairway grass and for coarse sand, while other sand wedges have around ten degrees of bounce, which is better for finer grains of sand. The more bounce a club has, the less it will dig into the sand, so it will get you out consistently with less effort. Once you experience that, you can experiment with distance control by using the same easy swing and varying the ball position (forward usually works best), varying the amount of open face (after gripping the club), and varying how far behind the ball your clubhead enters the sand.

You may find you have a maximum range for these types of shots, so what do you do if you have a sand shot longer than your maximum range? Using a sand wedge having a lot of bounce, open the face about 45 degrees and try to pick the ball clean. Even if the club hits the sand first, the club will bounce off the sand and into the ball, sending it about a far as a pitch from grass. This takes a little practice, but it might come in handy some day. (see www.geocities.com/golfwithjoey)