need advise how to hit 10-20m chip over bunker

seem to find myself in these situations a lot, even yesterday face this 4 times. Ball is 10-20m away with a big bunker in front (hole very near the bunker) and often on hard ground. Most times landing in the bunker is a better situation!!

Many times i will just clear the bunker (and the slope) but the ball will roll pass the hole and off the green. Bunker often too big to chip around.

Any tips for such situations? tried to be Phil once....did not work

using 60/10 wedge. Because of this considering a 64 wedge and dropping the seldom used 56 (did not see one at recent PW sale)

tronos wrote:

Any tips for such situations? tried to be Phil once....did not work

Seems that lob shot would do the job.. imho

Bro, care to elaborate on the "did not work" part? could it be due to the lie? If it is then... bo pian... even Phil himself failed on such tough shot every now and then (if i am not mistaken, recently happened in one of the tournament in Asia)

A more difficult shot:

Use your 60˚, make a strong firm stroke attacking the ball, it will launch to 15 to 25 metres and spin back 5 metres into the hole. j/k of course.

I was thinking of asking you to use a 60˚ wedge but noted in the later part of your post that you are already using a 60˚. So how does your 60˚ chip shots launch and land? Do they launch high and land soft? It sounds like your 60˚ behaves like my 52˚; alot of roll.

Maybe what you want to do is to learn to launch the ball high and land it soft. It is not so much of a flop, but something between a pitch and a flop. You got to first break down your swing into 2 parts; the take back and the follow through. The take back is what that determines the distance of the shot. A shorter take back means shorter distance. The follow through determines the height of the ball flight. The higher you follow through ends, the higher the ball will launch. In your case, take back about 2 feet, then hit the ball and follow though with your club pointing to the sky. In addition, I do throw abit of wrist action into the whole equation but it just makes things more risky but still not as risky as a flop.

If you are asking what is wrist action, it is the cock and cutting of the wrist upon ball contact.

This is what works for me. and no, it does not work all the time for me.

I think it boils down to confidence and a good strike of your 60˚ (or even a 58˚) wedge.

Oftentimes, I get caught in a situation where the bunker just messes with my mind. The more I see the bunker, the more I become fearful of entering it and true enough, I will.

What I do is to position myself to hit the ball and completely (as far as possible) block out the bunker from my mind and sight. Just focus on the shot. I then take a couple more seconds to look at the ball and this helps reduce the image of the bunker in my mind.

Then, I take my shot.

HTH

(What's more worrying are those situations where the back of the green is water or another bunker and overhitting the shot will mean yet another problem.)

thanks all for the tips......will try that out this sat...my current strategy is a bit kia-si.....ie just avoid bunker direction...

my ball flight not so high, about 50/50 or 40/60 (carry/roll). takeaway hinge the wrist, then ridged follow thru, like a push. Maybe should follow like the video.

As I have explained to many, use the design of the wedge to your advantage. Bounce and loft are your 2 friends when it comes a chip shot. Have the club in a neutral position in the middle of your stance with your weight slightly more on the forward foot at address( for a right hand golfer it's your left).The key is to look at the front of the ball. This would keep your centre( your center in a golf swing almost where your sternum is)ahead of the ball.Your feet slightly inside shoulder width. Make a back swing like you would do for any chip(maintain the Y created by the forearms and shaft) and accelerate through,maintaining your spine angle throughout the swing to the finish with minimal club face rotation. The club should have maintained the same look it had at address and not toed in. You would find that for as long your weight stays at your front foot and your spine angle remains the same throughout the chip, it would be very difficult to hit a bad shot

Wah... I got a lot to learn. Always hit the ground before the ball -- fat shot. Any tips?

Victor3112 wrote:

Wah... I got a lot to learn. Always hit the ground before the ball -- fat shot. Any tips?

where's your ball position and weight at address and what wedge do you use more than often?

Pro, can I have one question before answer you? Do you have only 1 bottom of swing (arc) all the time (and where is it), and adjust the position accordingly?

My ball position is center. 52deg, 60deg or sand ... same thing.

i learnt from a particular kiwi pro...

put more emphasis in learning how not to get into such a situation. if need to, take the humble pill and play short, with a simpler chip onto the green. even the pros view flop shots as risky.

agree man... it is a difficult situation to be in... a difficult shot... try to be too cute... get into bunker... try to play too safe... carry the green. We all got day jobs rite? So manage our own expectations and enjoy the challenge. Even Phil Mickelson will cock up this shot at times... most of the time he execute swee swee of course, then again... he is Phil Mickelson leh... so I take comfort on that!

Victor3112 wrote:

Pro, can I have one question before answer you? Do you have only 1 bottom of swing (arc) all the time (and where is it), and adjust the position accordingly?

My ball position is center. 52deg, 60deg or sand ... same thing.

The bottom of the arc is determined by a few factors. 1. The nature of your action. 2. Ball position. 3. Weight distribution at address. Basically if your action is of a consistent one with your ball position in the middle and your eight distributed evenly, then the bottom of your swing should be where your club started it's swing from. Once you change these 3 factors then you change the trajectory, spin,angle of attack and bottom of swing. Some players choose to change these factors with a same club to hit different shots. Some keep the same mechanics and use different clubs to hit different shots. For example if you had your ball position center, with your weight center with a similar swing with your 3 wedges, the bottom of the arc would be the same but the trajectory,distance and spin you would create would be different due to the different lofts.

kopiO wrote:

i learnt from a particular kiwi pro...

put more emphasis in learning how not to get into such a situation. if need to, take the humble pill and play short, with a simpler chip onto the green. even the pros view flop shots as risky.

Yes that I do agree too. However it's always handy to have another shot in the bag, just in case things don't go as planned