Wet Sand

[Diane]

Would someone be able to explain to me how to hit out of wet sand? I played today and the sand was very wet and heavy. I could not get under the ball - what am I doing wrong?

[ringin]

Good question Diane. Most of people (myself included) despise wet sand. The easiest way to get under the ball in a bunker is to open the club face, and your stance, and play the ball a little closer to your front foot. This flattens the club face out and let's it slice underneath the ball so it will come out on a nice cushion of (wet chunky) sand. This shot also depends on how much sand there is under the ball. If it's wet and heavy, but not a lot of sand below the ball, then doing what I just described, you run the risk of bouncing the club off the sand and blading the ball a mile. I use a 60* wedge with minimal bounce on 99% of green side bunker shots...so this also helps prevent that bladed bunker shot.

If you have some sand under the ball, which you can usually tell when you dig your feet in how much sand there is, then I'd play it like I described, but since the sand is wet, you'll want to really make sure you hit through the sand an inch or two behind the ball and follow all the way through. This should get you out of the bunker and on the green, even in those conditions. The last thing you want to do, with any bunker shot really, is hit down into the sand behind the ball, and not finish your swing. The ball will go nowhere every time.

[Samsquanch]

My course has lots of wet sand, I've always thought out of wet sand you should use a wedge with the least bounce as possible... In my case it would be my 60degree with 10 degrees of bounce.

Take a shorter swing, make sure to ACCELERATE through the ball. Lot's of people have problems decelerating on the downswing and usually leave it in the bunker or skull it over the green. So make sure to accelerate. I would try to hit it 2-1/2 to 3 inches behind the ball. If you do it right you will get a 'thump!' sound rather than a 'kaploosh' sound.

EDIT: Like ringin said, open up your stance and clubface as well, put it up more in the stance. Ringin has some good ideas.

Good luck!

[Diane]

Thanks Ringin - this makes sense, but I don't have a 60* wedge. I have a 56* Vokey. Would I open the club face more? I think my big problem today was not following through, but I got stuck in the wet sand.

[Samsquanch]

Originally Posted by Diane

Thanks Ringin - this makes sense, but I don't have a 60* wedge. I have a 56* Vokey. Would I open the club face more? I think my big problem today was not following through, but I got stuck in the wet sand.

The 56* would be good too, my preference is to use a 60*, but either one will work. Yeah just open up the clubface and it should come out nicely. The 60 is nice for deep bunkers like at my course but the 56 is good for getting some rollout.

[ringin]

A 56 is fine..but remember, that because it has less loft, even if you open it up, it will still go farther. I'm sure you're used to using it from the bunkers, so just open the face and your stance and swing along the line of your feet. It should come out nicely.

[JPsuff]

Originally Posted by Diane

Would someone be able to explain to me how to hit out of wet sand? I played today and the sand was very wet and heavy. I could not get under the ball - what am I doing wrong?

Well, the first thing I do in that situation is to lose the big bounce wedge. I normally use a 55 deg. wedge for most sand shots and it has a about a 11 deg. bounce in it. I instead use my 51 deg. wedge which has very little bounce (about 6 degrees) and I hit the shot so that I slide the club under the ball rather than go for the usual one-inch of sand. I do the same thing when I have to get the ball up quickly from a downhill bunker lie.

I set up like I normally do with my body set to about a 45 deg. angle to the shot line and I open my clubface as usual. But instead of aiming for a spot an inch or two behind the ball like I would on a normal sand shot, I aim to hit just under the back of the ball - kind of like I would if i were hitting a soft pitch or chip from short rough.
I then swing a bit flatter than normal and I actually have a vision of sliding the club under the ball in much the same way as one might slide a spatula under a hamburger on a grill and then I follow through normally.

A way to practice this shot is to put a dollar bill lengthwise under a ball (the long axis of the bill along the shot line) with about 1/4 to 1/3 of the bill exposed behind the ball. Swing the club as if you are trying to scoop up the dollar bill and the ball will float out of the bunker along with the bill.

If the bunker is really flat and more or less level with the green, then I sometimes go to an 8 or 9-iron and simply hit the ball just as I would a short chip. Just make sure that you contact the ball first and don't hit down on it just swing nice and level and let the loft do the rest.


Hope this helps!


-JP

[Bigvivec]

I actually like wet sand...you don't have to swing as hard for the energy transfer...the ball will pop right out...like the others said, the bounce will kill you, so use your gap or pw, open the face, and hit closer to the ball (for me that is one inch behind vs the usual 2 in)...

[petermo]

When our sand gets really wet it gets pretty muddy and sticky and opening the clubface just doesn't work. I find the best way to get out (1st priority in this muck) is to play the ball just inside my left heel with my weight on my front foot and to ensure that the face of the wedge (56* or 60*) is square to the line and then to hit about 2'' behind it much as I would play a plugged ball. It's hard to get close unless by good luck but usually gets out of the very heavy stuff.

If the sand is slightly wet the previous techniques work well and actually make our bunkers easier to play.

[JimSomebody]

(moved thread to this "Practice Range" forum)

[Fourputt]

Lots of differing answers here. I guess it's time to add some more confusion....

I really don't change much except I take a slightly steeper swing path so that the club thumps a bit harder into the sand. Other than that I use the same setup and ball position, and I use my regular 56 degree SW. I also make sure that I use Harvey Penick's suggestion of making sure that I grip the club more firmly than normal with the last 3 fingers of the left hand, which helps to insure that the you don't close the clubface (it makes it harder to release and roll the hands over).

[Diane]

Originally Posted by Bigvivec

I actually like wet sand...you don't have to swing as hard for the energy transfer...the ball will pop right out...like the others said, the bounce will kill you, so use your gap or pw, open the face, and hit closer to the ball (for me that is one inch behind vs the usual 2 in)...

I don't understand that - it seems to me that you have to swing harder because the sand is heavy.

[Bigvivec]

Originally Posted by Diane

I don't understand that - it seems to me that you have to swing harder because the sand is heavy.

Golf is a game of opposites...go practice in some wet sand and you'll see what I mean...it is like that desktop ball swinging thing...one ball clicks on the end of 5 balls suspended with string and the last ball swings up, back down and sends the ball on the opposite end flying...the wet sand is more tightly packed and therefore transfers energy better, needing a shorter swing (as power is controlled by the length of the backswing, tempo always the same) to send the ball an equal distance as in dry sand...this translates into more control as a shorter swing is by nature easier to control than a longer one...

[petermo]

I think it depends on the nature of the sand - very fine sand can be like cement while coarser sand does send the ball a bit further when wet. As in most golfing questions there are often a number of alternatives.