Well, it’s not really that bad. But, I thought I should cover buried lies if I’m going to stick with the beach week theme. The good news is, the changes you need to make to play a buried lie are small and pretty simple. The bad news is, the more the ball is buried, the less you should be concerned with getting up and down and the more you should be concerned with just getting on the green. If you haven’t been following along this week, I suggest familiarizing yourself with the basic sand shot from yesterday. Once you have that down, the changes required to handle buried lies are simple. As usual, I turn to Dave Pelz’s Short Game Bible for guidance in this area. He has created a helpful matrix of adjustments for handling buried lies on page 287. I’ll summarize for you. Basically, the basic set up with a good lie consists of aiming about 17 degrees left of the target, opening the club face 45 degrees, playing the ball off the

Since I’ve been talking about sand play (and golf equipment) all week, I’m declaring this beach week. All sand, all the time. Today, I figure it’s time to cover basic bunker technique. As with most of the short game, I take my cues from Dave Pelz. Specifically, I use the technique outlined in his Short Game Bible. Before I cover that, I want to say something important: in my observation, basic sand play is fairly straightforward and simple, but many people can’t get over their mental anguish about it. This leads to poor bunker play and fear that seems almost paralyzing as they prepare to get their golf ball out of jail. At that stage, they’re just looking to gouge it out and are happy if the ball ends up out of the bunker, are elated if the ball ends up on the green, and are tickled to death if they’re in two-putt range. Well, I’m here to tell you that there’s nothing to fear. With proper technique and a little occasional practice, you can