Yesterday
during the Bear Trap – I mean Honda – Classic, Tiger Woods struggled on the 13th
hole with a “fried egg” lie in the bunker. He managed to escape the bunker, but only because he bellied
the ball over the green and into the TV tower. I’m no one to tell Tiger what he’s doing wrong, but there
were a few things he did wrong with that shot. I’m going to pass on a few tips to help you escape buried
lies with as little damage as possible.
Don’t Open the Club
Face
Sand
wedges are designed with what’s called “bounce.” Generally, sand wedges have higher degrees of bounce,
created by the angle of the sole of the club, which helps creates the explosion
shots needed to escape your average bunker. The problem is that bounce will make the club do exactly
what it sounds like – bounce. When
the ball is lying buried in the sand, the last thing you want to do is play a
typical bounce explosion shot.
While Tiger did close the face down from his typical wide-open sand
stroke, he still left the face open slightly because he was trying to be a
little too cute from a tricky lie.
The bounce caused him to actually contact the ball and blade it over the
green.
To
successfully attack a buried lie, you want to keep the clubface square or even
slightly shut, depending on your comfort level. This will allow you to have the leading edge of the club cut
through and dig into the sand without bouncing into the golf ball.
Take a Steep Angle of
Approach
One
thing Tiger did correctly was rehearsing and using a steeper angle of approach
for his bunker shot. The
announcers commented on it, and actually it was quite obvious that he was
trying to approach the ball more steeply than usual. The reason is because of the great golf equation: Down =
Up. For the same reason you want
to strike the golf ball on the downward approach (ball then turf), you want to
strike the sand with a steep downward blow in order to create a steep upward
rise of the ball. It’s simple
physics. Think of a rubber
ball. When it bounces it creates a
V from the downward approach to the upward bounce. This stroke is no different. The downward angled approach will create upward thrust at a
similar angle. A good steep buried
lie swing will result in a high usually spin-less or even top-spinning golf
ball.
Tiger
had plenty of green to work with and if he had just focused on “popping” the
ball out with no spin or top-spin, he could have escaped with a reasonable par
putt.
You
do need to make sure not to take this too far. This isn’t chopping wood. You want to take a steep stroke, but it is still a golf
stroke and requires some impetus forward.
Just Get it Out
Tiger’s
biggest flaw was trying to get too cute with the shot. He had drawn a horrible lie and it was
time to just take the medicine and move on. When you approach a buried lie you should forget about
trying to get it close. The focus should be on safely getting the ball out of
the bunker. If the safest
direction happens to take you toward the hole, that’s great, but if the safest
direction is away from the hole, take it.
Better to two-putt for bogey with a long chance for par than blade one
into the TV tower and have to make a putt for double.
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