Fluffy powdery sand.. Technique or equipment.

Hi guys,

Had a good day at Occ today, except I was in the bunker so many times I thought I was at east coast park.

Dendro has some nice fluffy powdery sand.

bunkers there are about knee to hip height. Cant just putt out.

Swapped Sw today for 5h, and used a low bounce 60* in the bunkers.

Options I came up with

1. Flop shot technique. Ball a bit further forward, face open. Cos low bounce wedge used. Get the sucker under the ball.

2. Chip. Clean contact with ball. Divot after ball. Ball flies out hot.

3. Hand wedge. Mutter un printable words sounding like Martha trucker, along with the usual hokkien phrases which rhyme with cheese pie.

So guys, some help please.

Whats a good technique to deal with fluffy bunker sand?

Would a bug bounce wedge help, and why?

Many thanks!

12 or more degrees bounce, wide flange.
Open club face to expose even more bounce.

It's always the technique mate. We all know that

Place the ball position forward in your stance
lean your weight forward
Head position behind the ball
Address 1-2 inches behind the ball and accelerate thru

If sand is fluffy you can use a higher bounce wedge and/or open the face
If sand is tight and heavy, then vice versa

Works for me. Try it out

Fluffy sand typically requires more bounce and less dig. Conversely hard compact sand requires less bounce and more dig.

Aside from more bounce, don't forget to really commit and make a big enough swing.

You can actually practice at the beach without a ball, in general, if you can send the sand flying high and a good distance, the ball will go along for the ride.

Good idea. With angsana seeds.

Point to self. Keep mouth closed when practicing bunker shots. Or bring more water to rinse mouth after.

Ok guys don't really get the bounce aspect.

Can understand on the turf, bug bounce gets in the way of the shot, so tends to result in thin shots.

But in the sand, how does a big bounce work?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xlrSer5I474

great video. thanks!

Ok just thought of this.

What if I open the face. Would that give me more bounce?

So I can use my 60* 8* lob wedge in the bunker?

How do you guys control your distance out of sand?
I use to control by the swing speed but recently cannot make it ...
Trying to adjust to the clock time swing ... but get too technical ... sigh ...
Any good advice?

How much you open club face and swing (1/2 swing or full swing)

Not good enough to control the sand shots .

Generally for me,
For greenside bunkers with not much green to work on, I use 60.
With more green to work on, I use 54.
Both with same swings.

sob wrote:

How much you open club face and swing (1/2 swing or full swing)

Half swing ... usually with my trusty TM 56 deg .. slight open

I believe opening the club face would add bounce. For me with fluffy sand, I'll use my 58, open stance, place the ball slightly left of center, and concentrate on hitting 1" behind the ball.

Thanks for the video, my bunker play is really poor

michaelcheah wrote:

sob wrote:

How much you open club face and swing (1/2 swing or full swing)

Half swing ... usually with my trusty TM 56 deg .. slight open

Play with the face, don't be afraid to open it more than 45 deg.
Do 45, 60 ,90 and see what kinda dist and height it gives you

Many great comments here, the general rule of thumb in the sand is more sand more bounce, more speed, more effort vs. less sand less bounce, less speed, less effort.

Here's a video I put together last year on the various ways to expose the bounce when playing bunker shots...

Bunker Play - How To Use The Sand-Wedge

Cheers

Great video mate! Thanks for sharing.

Definitely equipment.. I bought the TM ATV 58 deg wedge and I'm not only getting 1 shot out from bunkers, I'm getting the ball to stop near the pins!