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Freakin sand traps

• rkix351 26 Posts

  Wed, Jan 27 2010 5:06 AM

  Sorry guys but getting in the sand at kiawah just plain SUCKS!!!! you can be shooting a great round and if you end up in a trap, well I waste at least 2 strokes trying to get out. The shot out of the traps shouldn't be that difficult!!! ( they aren't in the real game! Fix the traps please,

• jayjonbeach 689 Posts

  Wed, Jan 27 2010 6:01 AM

  Are you talking fairway traps or close to the green? 

  I havent noticed these any more difficult than the BPB ones. 

  Note that you can never use chip or pitch in the traps, even when you are by the green.  Also, I have got screwed by punch as the lip was too high and I hit it.  Full swing is the safest bet in my expereince AND you have to make sure you use enough club, like half the power of the meter.  If you try to hit a light shot of there, you wont be getting out. 

• YankeeJim 25,827 Posts

  Wed, Jan 27 2010 7:07 AM

  rkix has a point jay. The traps at Kia play much differently, sometimes in the same trap! The fairway trap on 7 at the bend-the long par 5. Hit into the close part of it and get a 30/40 lie and you have trouble getting out. Hit into it a little further up with a 10/15 lie and you can hit out of it for distance-same trap, no bunker walls to contend with. The 30/40 lie makes a huge difference.

  The fairway trap on the left of 9 at the bend is a good example of what a wall will do to you. Get into that trap and try to use a long iron-the trajectory takes it into the side of the bunker so you need a lofted club to get back in play.

  I disagree on pitching out of traps. This definitely works, just pick your spots to use it.

• birdwell 561 Posts

  Wed, Jan 27 2010 7:48 AM

  The sand lie's make sense to me at Kiawah. Maybe Tarheels can verify this, I think WGT did their homework here.

  If you are away from the edge of a fairway bunker, you get hard sand. This makes sense as the wind blows it around all the time, dispersing it. It you are close to the wall of the fairway bunker, you are in deep $#*^. The wind blows the sand around and it piles up there. 

  All of the green side bunkers are fairly shielded from the wind, when sand blowing around gets in there, it stays in there, so it is softer sand for sure. I have never, that I can remember, been in a green side bunker with better than a 30% lie.

  I do agree the sand on BPB is easier to contend with. It hasn't been worked over by that little thing called the Atlantic Ocean for millennia.

  On BPB, 90% of my greenside bunker shots are Pitch. Can't really do that on the island.