Sand Shots and Chipping
tuck in the beach When you’re in a deep bunker, your primary concern should be hitting the ball high enough so that it clears the lip. Therefore, you’ll need your most lofted wedge. If your most lofted wedge is a sand wedge, you’ll have to open it up. I recommend you open the face of your lob wedge, as well. Height is the key. When you open the face of any club, the leading edge will face to the right of your target. Therefore, when playing this shot, aim left of the pin so that the face on your wedge points at the target. As far as ball position is concerned, play it off the instep of your left foot, yet close to your body. You want your hands in nice and tight on this shot. The reason why is that it makes it easier to hinge your wrists—the key swing component for this shot. In the photos below, you should notice that I’ve choked down on the club a bit. Doing so gives me greater control. These aren’t power shots, they’re finesse shots, and a choked grip will give you better control of the clubhead. As you start your swing, move the club away from you, with your arms, hands and torso moving together. Hinge your wrists immediately, all the while keeping your right elbow tucked close to your right side. On the downswing, make sure to swing along your toe line, that is, to the left of the target (remember your open stance). The combination of the open clubface and cut swingpath will send the ball high into the air.   To get the ball up quickly from a deep bunker lie, open the face and your stance and swing along your toe line. A quick hinging of the wrists should dominate your backswing.           Maintain constant acceleration through the shot—don’t hit it and quit. That’s a sure-fire way to leave the ball in the hazard. Aim for a spot a few inches behind the ball and move the clubhead underneath it at a constant rate of speed. I’ve yet to mention the lower body. That’s done for a reason. The deep bunker blast is an upper body-dominated motion. You should allow your lower body to follow your hands on the downswing, but you’ll experience the best results if you keep your legs as quiet as possible during the backswing.                     the close-cut fringe A missed green is a missed green, even if your ball happens to wind up just a few feet from the putting surface. Good players will often find themselves in this situation, with a good lie on close-cut grass and but a few feet away from the putting surface. A great play from here is the putter. Even if there’s 20 feet between you and the green, if the grass is tight, opt for the putter. Your first choice may be a wedge, but the bounce on a wedge can force the club to carom off tight lies and send the ball scurrying across the green. Plus, there’s an age-old adage in golf that says it’s always easier to control a ball on the ground than in the air. I believe this to be true. The best part about this shot is that you already know how to execute it. Just be careful not to forward press too much. This will decrease the amount of loft built into the putterface and force the ball to potentially jump offline. The average putter loft is four degrees, which is needed to get the ball rolling over the grass end-over-end as soon as possible. One last recommendation is to keep your normal putting grip, but make sure not to over-hit with the right hand. This is a common error when trying to execute this shot as the golfer believes he or she must hit the ball hard to get it through the grass. Simply make your normal putting stroke, with constant acceleration and easy tempo. For longer-length shots, just take the putter back a bit further, low to the ground, both back and through. If you’re just a few feet from the pin, tighten your grip a bit. For longer shots, go ahead and loosen your hold. You’ll be amazed at the results. Experiment with this technique using 3-woods and 5-woods. When the grass is a little longer, or if you’re playing late in the day, the greater loft of these clubs will help the ball navigate the longer blade lengths.                   the deep When you miss a green, your ball will usually come to rest in some deep grass either to the side or long of the green. Thankfully, we don’t play in U.S. Open-style conditions everyday, so the typical deep grass greenside lie won’t require a chop shot or blast. What’s normally required is a crisp, controlled pop on the ball via a slow, smooth swing.           Set up for the shot exactly how you’d set up to hit from a deep bunker, that is, with an open stance, with the face of your wedge slightly open, with a choked-down grip and with the ball played forward and close to your body. If you have lots of green with which to work, take a longer backswing; short shots require a shorter swing. In either case, break your wrists at the start of the takeaway. It’s likely you won’t have to swing past hip-high in the backswing. The true key on the deep-grass chip is to hit down and through. The clubhead should still be traveling on a descending arc as it strikes the golf ball. How’s this done? It’s done with your hands. Forget about your legwork and rotation and clubface position. Simply move your hands back with a hinge of the wrists on the backswing and power the club back to the ball with your hands. The only real requirement is to keep the clubhead traveling on a line that parallels your toe line.   Once contact is made, don’t stop your swing, but don’t continue to a full finish, either. On these delicate blasts, it’s okay to stop your swing post-impact, when the shaft and your lead arm once again form a straight line. By doing so, you’ll put an extra bit of spin on the ball to better control it once it lands on the green. I like to play these shots where the ball lands three-quarters of the way to the hole, takes a jump and then spins to a sto
 

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