Hi,
What’s the best way to play out of compacted wet sand?
A friend mentioned just to treat it like a chip on dead pan and make sure you chip it up high enough to clear the lip.
Any other thoughts or tips?

Stokesy

This is good advice, but I just do what I always do, dig my feet in to test the sand, and get my stance, because then I know just how wet it really is, then I make a choice, either hit like a bunker shot, or chip it like a deadpan chip…

How do you play the deadpan chip?

Whatever you do don’t smile.

Hit the ball like a normal bunker shot (i.e. sand first) but with the clubface square – you don’t want extra clubhead bounce which can cannon into the ball. Even try a pitching wedge instead of the sand wedge

Practice is the only way. You need to have smart hands and some ticker as well (and a head on your shoulders) and confidence and this comes from practice. I could show you how to hit the shot in person but will it work for you? No…it will not. It is practice!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Grab your shag bag and bury your head in a bunker weekly!

Practice is the only way. You need to have smart hands and some ticker as well (and a head on your shoulders) and confidence and this comes from practice. I could show you how to hit the shot in person but will it work for you? No…it will not. It is practice!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Grab your shag bag and bury your head in a bunker weekly!

well said, bunkers are the most esoteric of all the shots imho…. and the easiest because of this….

Muntz, you crack me up. “Don’t smile.”

I saw “dead pan”, briefly puzzled over it, put it into the “incubator” for awhile and it just popped out “hard pan”.

I will echo others. Conventional wisdom is chip it out of firm sand with a less lofted club.
The usual, “ball then turf (sand)”. The hard stuff might be forgiving if you don’t do it exactly right. Yeah, square face, take dead aim.

i use the the lob & not the sandie,
i move the ball a little back than normal, square the face a little, reduce the power a little and hit a mini pitch shot..

lately i have found the most important thing in the sand ( for me ) is to slow the backswing, stop gritting my teeth and keep my eyes open !
;)

Hardest shot in golf I reckon, trying to hit out of a hard, wet bunker when you can’t get under the ball and have a high face to get over. There just isn’t any room for error – little bit thin, the ball hits the face, little bit fat and duff it or skid the club into the ball. Putting it out the nearest bail-out point seems like the percentage play sometimes…

Hey, here’s a topic some genius started a little while back…

Wet Sand

Hardest shot in golf I reckon, trying to hit out of a hard, wet bunker when you can’t get under the ball and have a high face to get over. There just isn’t any room for error – little bit thin, the ball hits the face, little bit fat and duff it or skid the club into the ball. Putting it out the nearest bail-out point seems like the percentage play sometimes…

Hey, here’s a topic some genius started a little while back…

Wet Sand

Reverse every natural instinct you have and do just the opposite of what you are inclined to do and you will probably come very close to having a perfect golf swing. – BEN HOGAN, POWER GOLF

I agree, particularly when you consider a bunker is the closest thing to an easy shot in the whole game, then it gets wet…and compacted. Hate it…

some courses give a free relief drop out of the sand if the bunkers are too wet. check the local rules

Thanks for the advice boys, and thanks to Muntz for the link. Might have a go at using the pitching wedge out of them. Luckily I avoided all bunkers on the weekend, but I’m sure if I got in them my score would have blown out abit.

I’ll be prepared for them next time!

Might look into investing in a lob wedge as well.

Cheers,

Stokesy

A low bounce 60 deg wedge can be useful for all kinds of situations.

My club has a perennial problem with clay washing from surrounding soil into bunkers turning them into rock hard craters in wet weather – it’s ruined plenty of otherwise solid rounds.

I will have to bite the bullet and practise practise practise…

some courses give a free relief drop out of the sand if the bunkers are too wet. check the local rules

naughty naughty

Dec 33 8/27 Local Rule Providing Relief Without Penalty from Flooded Bunker

May a Committee make a Local Rule allowing a player to drop out of any bunker filled with casual water, without penalty, notwithstanding Rule 25-1b(ii)?

No. Such a Local Rule is not acceptable as it waives a penalty imposed by a Rule of Golf, contrary to Rule 33-8b.

The key words there are “filled with” and “out of”.
I looked it up also. Rule 25-1. A drop out of the bunker costs a stroke.

In the bunker, you can drop from casual water 1 club length from closest point of relief in the bunker not nearer the hole.
If the bunker is filled with water you can choose to drop 1 club length from place of most relief, i.e. shallowest casual water.

Cheers Loren. I didn’t actually realise you could get relief from casual water in a bunker by dropping outside the bunker (with 1 shot penalty).

Of course, if you really really hate playing from bunkers and there is no abnormal ground condition in the bunker (i.e. casual water) you can always take stroke and distance – i.e. return to where you played your last stroke and add a penalty shot.

27-1 “At any time, a player may, under penalty of one stroke, play a ball as nearly as possible at the spot from which the original ball was last played (see Rule 20-5), i.e., proceed under penalty of stroke and distance.”

i.e. On a par 4 you hit your second shot into a bunker. You may elect to play another shot from the same spot. If so you are now playing your 4th shot.

Of course, bunker shots out of reasonable sand aren’t that hard once you get the basic idea.

Cheers Loren. I didn’t actually realise you could get relief from casual water in a bunker by dropping outside the bunker (with 1 shot penalty).

Of course, if you really really hate playing from bunkers and there is no abnormal ground condition in the bunker (i.e. casual water) you can always take stroke and distance – i.e. return to where you played your last stroke and add a penalty shot.

27-1 “At any time, a player may, under penalty of one stroke, play a ball as nearly as possible at the spot from which the original ball was last played (see Rule 20-5), i.e., proceed under penalty of stroke and distance.”

i.e. On a par 4 you hit your second shot into a bunker. You may elect to play another shot from the same spot. If so you are now playing your 4th shot.

Of course, bunker shots out of reasonable sand aren’t that hard once you get the basic idea.

Reverse every natural instinct you have and do just the opposite of what you are inclined to do and you will probably come very close to having a perfect golf swing. – BEN HOGAN, POWER GOLF

Rule 27 is about a lost ball, out of bounds or otherwise….

You are thinking of declaring a ball unplayable Rule 28. The player can declare a ball unplayable anywhere on the course except in a water hazard. (I’m not quoting) there are three options, where you originally played the ball, two club lengths, or keeping the hole in line go back directly from the point the ball lay and was declared unplayable.

A handy rule, one I have used on occasion…

Cliff, rule 27-1 specifically says “at any time”. It is a rule that has actually changed in wording from 1 Jan 2008.

You can put another ball in play whenever you want, as long as (i) you go back to where you hit your last shot and (ii) you add a penalty stroke. It doesn’t have to be lost or OOB.

If you play a “provisional” but don’t actually state it as such, the first ball is no longer in play, and your second ball is in play – again with the addition of a penalty shot.

Saw a bloke once – long putt, slick green – putt into a bunker. Declared unplayable and putted over. Said he hated bunkers.

I am going to play all my shots “dead pan” from now on.

Boom boom.

Cliff, rule 27-1 specifically says “at any time”. It is a rule that has actually changed in wording from 1 Jan 2008.

You can put another ball in play whenever you want, as long as (i) you go back to where you hit your last shot and (ii) you add a penalty stroke. It doesn’t have to be lost or OOB.

If you play a “provisional” but don’t actually state it as such, the first ball is no longer in play, and your second ball is in play – again with the addition of a penalty shot.

Reverse every natural instinct you have and do just the opposite of what you are inclined to do and you will probably come very close to having a perfect golf swing. – BEN HOGAN, POWER GOLF

ahh I need a new copy of the rules, I had a feeling this may have been the case when I typed the last post, my appologies…