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bunker shots

• MikeMaas 5 Posts

  Mon, Nov 23 2009 6:30 PM

  I have problems hitting out of the bunker.  I am a master tier player with the best taylor made's available.  I have a 54 and 60 wedge - the 60 wedge has a max distance of 90 yds.  I have to flop when I hit out of a bunker, and sometimes it flat out doesnt work.  It will just duff it.  Any suggestions?

• resozv 895 Posts

  Mon, Nov 23 2009 8:25 PM

  Mike look in game tips forum for : Struggling to get from Pro to Master? A couple masters gave a lesson today. I also wrote a synopsis. There is some trash talk to read through, but all in all solid teaching.

• lkennedy 194 Posts

  Tue, Nov 24 2009 3:28 AM

  OK, I have a fairly decent sandman record. Am not an expert, but have pretty good grasp of flop shot. My clubs are different than yours, so will take PRACTICE on your part. My flop options are two clubs. I call them short and long. One is 18 yards, the other is 24 yards. They have very different characteristics. They both go way right, so you have to compensate. On short, I put cursor about a yard to left of pin and use exact yardage including % of rough. On the long, I go about 5 yards in front of hole and slightly to the left. You almost have to "ding" the meter, and with the new green speeds, backspin is called for in a lot of instances to keep from running too far. Also, the sand on Kiawah plays differently than the sand on Bethpage. DO NOT try to flop from too far back in the bunker. Prime examples are 10 and 17 on Kiawah. You will not make it out. Also, 40% and 20% rough take different amounts of power to get out and come close. I have probably muddled this up for you, but if you and others can sift through the junk, you may find this somewhat helpful.

• JoelWhite 101 Posts

  Tue, Nov 24 2009 7:20 AM

  A player here explained the flop shot to me a while back. He said to line your shot up about 6 feet left of the pin. Works for me, although I have a tendency to go a bit long on most of my shots, the flop included. Ikennedy, you're correct about Kiawah sand...I can't flop out of it to save my soul.

• MikeMaas 5 Posts

  Tue, Nov 24 2009 4:00 PM

  I have no problems flopping in most cases. The problem comes when I am in a bunker (usually on Kiawah) and the hole is less than 15 yds away. If I hit my normal sand wedge, the shortest I can hit it and still get it out of the bunker is 30 yds - anything under that and it just duffs, since the max avg distance on that club is 90 yds. So my only option is to flop. That brings my max avg distance down to 32 yds. But if the pin is 10 yds away, I can't hit it that soft - anything under a 16 yd shot usually duffs. So apparently my only option is to hit a flop 16 yds and have to live with hitting it way past the hole. Either that or get a new sand wedge that has a shorter distance. I figured there was some secret I was missing out on.

• resozv 895 Posts

  Thu, Nov 26 2009 11:45 AM

  Mike have you tried to experiment with hitting the flop from sand 2mm early & @ 80% power? This has worked for me on a few occasions. You'll have to try each individually. See which performs the way you want. Then try both together. This is gonna mess the aim up. Shots seem to go even more right.