You went and did it. You tried to carry a green side bunker from a long way out but hit it fat and your ball dribbled over the lip and stopped rolling on a down slope. Or you almost carried it but the ball hit the sand on the up slope and sat there. Now what?

Don’t worry! Some simple adjustments and you’ll be up on the green and trying to make the next putt.

Good Lie

With a good lie, you want to try and get the angle of your shoulders to match the angle of the slope. This allows you to swing through the ball and make your normal basic sand swing. You also want to make sure you aim a little more left of the target than you might for a standard sand shot.

With an uphill lie, play the ball off the left heel. With a downhill lie, play the ball several inches further back, around the middle of your stance.

Also make sure you give yourself a stable base. You’ll want to keep your lower body quiet during the swing to help you maintain your balance.

Setting up with the shoulders parallel to the slope and the ball positioned forward for an uphill shot and back for a downhill shot will help you make sure that your swing arc is correct for the shot. You want the club to come down a couple of inches behind the ball and scoot through the sand and pop the ball out. If you stand too upright, then on an uphill shot, your club will dig into the side of the bunker. On a downhill shot, you’ll probably hit the ball first and skull it.

Make sure you alter your club selection to meet the challenge, especially on more severe slopes.

On a severe downhill lie, use the most lofted club you have and open the club face up as much as possible. Plan for the shot to come out with a relatively low trajectory and to run a good deal after hitting the green.

On a severe uphill lie, take a longer club to account for the fact that the ball will come out in a much higher trajectory and roll much less than normal. Don’t be afraid to use short and mid irons from severe up slopes if you have a fairly long carry.

Bad Lie

If your ball is plugged, then things change a little (this almost always occurs on an upslope). Your normal plan to scoot under the ball won’t work. In that case, the better plan is to go with the shot that Dave Pelz refers to in his Short Game Bible as the “dig and push”.

At address, the ball should be a couple of inches ahead of the center of your stance and you should be aimed directly at the target. Start with the club face square and dig right into the sand at impact. When the slope is too severe to keep your shoulders parallel to the sand, then Pelz recommends that you stand more vertically and hit down right near the back of the ball. You won’t be able to muster much of a follow through, but really accelerate on the downswing to give the ball a chance to get out of the bunker.

In both cases, the ball will come out relatively low and have a good deal of roll after landing.

As with any shot, it’s good to try these a few times in practice before taking them out to the course for the first time. That will allow you to refine your club selection and to know how much carry and roll to expect.

Remember these keys when you’re faced with uphill and downhill lies from the sand and you’ll get the ball up and down more often.

———————————–

Further Reading:

The Basic Sand Shot (Life in the Rough)
In Sand, the Point of Entry is Key (Life in the Rough)
The Buried Lie: A Sandy Grave (Life in the Rough)
Fairway Bunker Shots (Life in the Rough)

Did you like this post? Get free RSS updates!

Leave a comment | Comment Policy | Trackback URL