CHAPTER SEVENTEEN: ‘CAMEL GRASS’.

I met Dan again at the short game area for his next lesson. As I walked towards him I could see two cups of coffee sitting beside his golf bag. Dan was practicing his chipping.

“Good morning Dan” I called over to him as I picked up one of the coffees. “Don’t stop; I’ll just watch you while I sip this.” I stood and watched Dan in the warm sun, sipping my coffee.

“O.K; I’ll just hit a few more”. Dan continued chipping balls to a large group of balls around one flag. My guess was that he had chipped about 25 – 30 balls from the same spot already. This is something that I have done personally in my younger days, and I see golfers do it all the time these days.

“Dan, I am pleased that you are practicing so much, but that is a ‘quantity not quality’ practice you have there.” I said, looking at the pile of balls on the green near the flag. Dan looked at me with a perplexed look on his face. “You are never going to have the same chip shot twice in the same round, so why are you standing there with one club hitting shot after shot from the same spot? I would much rather you hit about 6 balls from each spot with each club at the most, and move around the green to different locations more often.”

“I was working on my technique” he answered.

“That’s great, but you are at a skill level now where your technique is quite good. Your practice time should be spent more on playing shots – practice playing golf, and less on practicing your swing. We will talk more on how to have quality practice later. Besides; today is sand shots so grab your sand wedge and come over to the bunker with me. Good chipping, by the way!”

We stood just outside the bunker near the chipping green. It is a fairly friendly depth for learning in – about 3 feet from the sand to the top of the lip. The green itself has a number of slopes and swales – good for practicing real game situations.

Dan proceeded to tell me how inconsistent he was from the sand. I already knew this from watching him in our playing lessons.

“O.K, Dan, show me what you can do.”

He walked down into the bunker with 6 balls and played them all, using a big, long swing with lots of speed and violence; two stayed in the sand, one flew 30 yards over the green and three landed safely on the putting green. One ball almost went in the hole. On each shot there was a loud, thumping sound as the club head contacted the sand.

“I suppose that is the typical pattern?” I asked, knowing the answer.

“Unfortunately; yes. I’ve read books on how to play these, but I still can’t do it very well” said Dan.

“Have you ever had a lesson on how to play these shots, and do you practice them?”

“No – I was too obsessed with my long shots; but you knew that, right?” Dan laughed.

I began by explaining ‘bunker shots 101’ to Dan. Even though he was a proficient player I often come across players such as Dan who have little to no knowledge at all about how to play these shots. So I like to make sure they have a basic understanding of the concept of how a bunker shot should be played. “Dan, this shot is the easiest shot in golf. It is the easiest because it is the only shot in golf where you are not required to hit the ball at all! You should be trying to make your club head enter the sand about 2-3 inches behind the ball. The club head should then continue to travel downwards and ‘slide’ through the sand under the ball. The loft of the sand wedge will then propel the ball up as the club head continues forward towards the green.

Do you remember the ‘bucket drill’? This situation is no different than your normal swing. Remember; one swing with a few minor adjustments. The club head should only start to rise up and out of the sand as it would in a normal follow-through; after the ball has been propelled upwards by the clubface and the sand.”

“Yes, I know all that” he said. “And I know you should open the clubface at address and open your stance as well.”

“Good, but do you know why you should make those two minor adjustments?” I was trying to gauge the depth of his knowledge here.

“Yes; the clubface is opened slightly at address to increase the loft of the clubface to help get the ball up more quickly and to help the bottom of the club ‘bounce’ through the sand rather than dig in too deep.”

“Very good, but most of the sand wedges these days are made with ‘bounce’ built into the sole of the club, so you don’t want to open the clubface too much Dan – unless the sand is abnormally deep and soft. Remember; all adjustments are minor. Opening the club face about 10-15 degrees is more than enough.”

“Really? I open mine as far as I can!” he said. He didn’t look too convinced that I was telling the truth. I ignored this.

What about the open stance?” I asked.

“The feet are open to the left of the target to off-set the ball traveling to the right because of the open clubface”. Dan explained confidently.

“True; but don’t forget that the clubface should never actually contact the ball; there is supposed to be a cushion of sand between the ball and the club face, so the effect of the open clubface sending the ball to the right is very minimal – only a few feet at most. Your feet should be only slightly open – aiming about six feet left of the hole is plenty if the surface of the green is level.”

“Oops! I’ve been aiming my feet a lot more to the left than that!” said Dan. “Why is that not good?”

“Well, if you aim a long way to the left and the ball keeps traveling pretty much where you are aiming, every time you make a correct swing your ball misses the target to the left by a long way. It’s going to cause the same ‘reaction’ process you have with your driver or putter when your aim is bad.
Eventually you will have to compensate in your technique for the bad aim. You will have to make bad swings, or different than normal swings, to hit a good shot. There is no consistency. So remember; as I’ve said before – all adjustments from square are minor.”

The next thing we needed to check was Dan’s ball position. As I mentioned earlier, the club head is supposed to enter the sand 2-3 inches behind the ball, so the normal ball position for short shots such as chipping and pitching won’t work.
The ball position for those shots is near, or slightly in front of the center of the stance. This automatically allows the club head to contact the ball just before the club head reaches the bottom of its swing arc, which is around the center or slightly forward of the center of the stance.
In a bunker shot, we need the club head to contact the sand at this point, so the ball needs to be positioned slightly forward of centre of the stance – almost like a normal iron shot from the fairway.
I explained this to Dan, who replied “I’ve been playing the ball way back in my stance so I can ‘hit down’ on the ball steeply like the books say.”

“As I keep telling you Dan; all adjustments are minor. The books are not wrong by the way – you do have to hit down into the sand, but of course; you have over-done it. There are situations when you will need to play the ball much farther back, and hit down with a much sharper angle at the ball, but most of the time you will be playing fairly standard sand shots. A fairly square address position will do the job just fine for now.
Your address positions will automatically give you the correct ‘angle of approach’ of the club head at the moment of contact. You won’t have to adjust your swing at all when you address the ball correctly.”