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How To Play Bunkers And Sand Traps

By Lee MacRae

A bunker beside the green is a fearsome place to be. Surprisingly, this is one of the easiest shots to perfect and can actually be an enjoyable part of your golf game. Just learn the proper techniques and apply a few tips and your bunker game will flourish.

Landing in someone else's footprint in a bunker can be very frustrating. Especially if they are rakes stationed around the sand! But getting worked up about someone else's misdeeds won't help you escape. The trick here is to treat your ball as though it were in a buried lie. Pick up the club sharply and hit sharply down behind the ball to avoid the surrounding barrier of sand. You may also want to adjust your angle of attack depending on how the footprint lies. The only difference between the footprint shot and a buried lie shot is that you use a sand wedge and not a pitching wedge. You want to dig through the sides of the footprint [hence the angle of attack] but beyond that it's a normal sand shot.

Ask any professional golfer the toughest shot in golf and he'll say the 60 yard sand shot. Even the top players have trouble deciding whether this calls for an explosion shot or a normal wedge shot. Fortunately, we average players don't have to make that decision. The 60 yard explosion just isn't in our bags. So we'll make do with the normal wedge shot. Stand squarely, with the ball in the middle of your stance. As with the long bunker shot, you should make contact with the ball first, to remain as steady as possible for as long as possible. As this requires you to swing with only your hands and arms, you'll want to take a club or two more than usual [but bear in mind that playing the ball farther back than normal will deloft the clubface slightly]. For anything up to 75 yards, the average players to use a pitching wedge hit with a three quarters swing.

Because every golfer wants to get up and down from greenside sand, there is always a great pressure to hit the ball close from a bunker. The fact is, however, that a top pro who gets up and down half the time is doing very well indeed. For this reason you should not concentrate on hitting sand shots to tap-in range [that is, to within three feet] as you would do for a long putt. Focus instead on hitting to within a target that's 12 to 15 feet in diameter. That gives you up to 7 1/2 feet to play with on each side of the hole can be much easier bull's-eye to deal with. You'll be more relaxed and will hit the ball even closer.

And no matter what you do, even for sand play, always imagine the shot before you take it. And imagine the shot being succesfull! Not much sense in defeating yourself before you even start. Imagine yourself being successful throughout your golf game and watch your game flourish.

About the author

Lee MacRae runs several online stores where you can find a great weighted golf club or a great clone golf club today!

Let's Talk About Golf

Many swing faults occur from an improper setup. This can cause unnecessary adjustments during the swing. Taking care to position the ball, feet, hips and shoulders properly ensures building a good swing foundation. Testing has shown golfers with open stances show no more tendency to slice than golfers with closed stances. The open stance may give the golfers a little more opportunity to slice, because it allows a little more freedom in the downswing and follow-though. The square stance is used by most successful golfers. Beginners should start with a square stance. As you advance, you can experiment with the advantages of other stances. Avoid extreme stances. Experiment to find the stance that works best for you. Take care to set up consistently on all normal shots.
...PGA of America

Build An Athletic Platform
Developing a powerful and consistent golf swing always starts with the address position. Tension should be avoided at all costs. Instead, the setup should have a light and bouncy feel that gets you ready to move freely in an athletic way. Tension restricts the body from moving properly and requires the hands and arms to play too active a role in the swing. Rehearse your setup carefully, and your swing will improve.
...Golf Tips magazine

The trajectory of a golf ball and the distance it travels depends on its initial trajectory, speed and spin, as well as what it's moving through (air). The air is not always the same. It varies in temperature, pressure, humidity and density. If there were no air whatsoever, the golf ball would not travel far. Likewise, if a ball is hit in air with no spin, it will not travel far.
...The Golf Channel

The reason for good extension in the follow through is to keep the clubface accelerating at impact! The reason that the slice is so common is that many players try to keep the clubface angle square to the target throught and after impact. This actually opens the face,resulting in a left to right spin to the ball (Slice).
...LPGA tips

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Which Golf Clubs Are For You?

By: Lee MacRae

With so many different makes and types of golf clubs on the market, it is no wonder beginners, let alone the more experienced golfer, can become easily confused when it comes to buying clubs.

We will go through a few basic tips to help you determine which golf clubs are right for you.

To begin with, it should be noted that ordinary, everyday golf clubs will work for virtually anybody standing between 5 feet and six feet tall. That can be said to apply to men as well as to women. Standard clubs will come in enough variety that you should find something to fit the rest of your personal needs quite readily.

Anyone else, should take a look at getting custom fitted clubs to match their height.

Cast Iron or Forged Iron Golf Club?

Standard cast iron golf clubs are the normal way to go.

And there is a reason for that. Very simply because standard cast iron clubs tend to have a larger "sweet spot". The trem refers to the best area on the club face that will give you the maximum range and accuracy on a shot. The larger "sweet spot" you have, the less likely it is that you will hit a bad shot You can still be a little "off center" and the ball is still struck well because you have a larger margin of error. Beginners especially benefit from that standard cast iron feature. Their swing is not as consistant as a seasoned golfer or a pro and so they have an easier time driving the ball well with a larger sweet spot at their disposal. This is the major reason why you see larger or even "oversized" clubs made, especially the oversized drivers today. These clubs allow for a larger sweet spot and make the game a lot easier for the average player

With forged iron clubs you have the exact opposite. A smaller sweet spot that makes your drives that much harder to hit well.

Why, you ask, are forged iron clubs even made then?

Because the "softer" forged metal gives the golfer a better feel than the harder cast iron does. The more experienced golfers can use this feel to great advantage, shaping their shots, even curving them intentionally when the circumstances require it. So, in effect, they trade off the larger sweet spot for the shot shaping feel of a forged iron club.

The next thing to look at is the shaft itself. Will we get one made from steel? Or will it be a composite material?

The significant measure here is golf club velocity. A typical, everyday golfer will possess a club velocity of 80 to 94 mph. Slower speeds generally imply you should look to using a shaft made from composite material. With a slower swing speed comes less distance on your drives. Less distance means more shots needed to reach the putting green. Not a good thing if you want to lower your score. And that is where the composite golf club shaft enters the picture. It gives you a lot more distance than you would get with your normal swing and a steel shaft.

For those of you with faster swing speeds, and subsequenlty good distances, steel shafted clubs will give you a lot more control on your shots. This is very similar to the advantages of iron over cast clubs.

You can find out your own swing speed by looking for a golf store that has a velocity speed gun or a radar gun package. It won't cost you much and you will know very quickly which type of shaft is best for you. You can even find some battery operated doppler radar devices on the market that you can set up and use to determine your club velocity by yourself.

So there you have it. Just a few quick tips but ones that will start you down the path to finding the right clubs for your game. Take the time to try different clubs and see how they hinder or help your game. If possible, even try different types of composite shafts. Different manufacturers will have different standards for shaft flex and so on. Check out as many as possible and take note of how each works for you.

If you implement these tips and work on them, you will be certain to develop a better drive within a short period of time. Just keep on practicing and working on your improvement. It's only a matter of time before your scores begin to drop.

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Some Quick Golf Information

The clubhead should be descending at impact with the exception of the Driver and the Putter. What is meant by descending angle of approach?
...Learn About Golf

High-Moi Putter
Blades milled from carbon steel look and feel nice, but they're not forgiving. Get a putter that's easy to use.
...Golf Tips magazine

Low-Cost Alternatives
If golf sounds like a great idea, the sticking point to getting started can all too often be cost. After all, you need clubs, balls, tees, and in the case of many clubs a strict dress code must be adhered to that makes entry into the sport appear prohibitive. However, it is essential that such enthusiasm should be nurtured by means of the opportunities afforded by low-cost alternatives. So why not start out by identifying the location of the local driving range, or a municipal course run by the council that will be relatively cheap in terms both of green fees and the hire of clubs.
...mastering golf UK

Turning hands counterclockwise on the shaft (weak grip), promotes a left-to-right flight of the ball (slice). Turning hands clockwise (strong grip) promotes a right-to-left flight of the ball (hook).
...Golf Instruction Guide

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Cure that golf hook

By: Mister Putt

By far and away the most common fault of the weekend golfer is the dreaded slice. We have all seen it, a hundred yards down the fairway and suddenly the ball turns right and disappears into the undergrowth.There are a thousand books and articles on it, why it happens and how you can cure it.

But what if you have the opposite problem, a hundred yards straight down the fairway and oh..oh exit stage left.This is the classic hook.How do you cure that? I hear you cry.Never fear Mister Putt is here.Like most faults the quickest wayto cure it is to go back to basics.Let me clear up one myth straight away,listen up..Practice Makes Perfect , no, no, no practice makes permanent (Thank you Dave Pelz )If your practice is faulty your golf will be faulty.

The Basics

Grip;Hold the club in your left hand down by your side, arm hanging down relaxed.Lift the club head up so the shaft is parallel to the ground and then lower it to the floor again, do this three times, feeling where the tension is in your arm.
Concentrate on leaving this tension behind.Now bring the club in front of you and at the same time bring your right hand to the club.Now the hard bit , as you close your right hand around the club try not to manipulate it in any way, by which I mean the club should not turn left or right at all.Now you should have a neutral grip, neither hand being dominant.Hookers have a tendency to turn their right hand over the top .The "V"sbetween your thumbs and index fingers should be pointing up to your right ear.You can check this in a mirror.Now with your neutral grip and relaxed arms just swing the club head backwards and forwards in a small arc.This will ease tension.Golf is a moving game and tension is the enemy of motion.Keep swinging in increasingly larger arcs always being aware of any creeping stiffness( tension) in the arms.Do this every day for ten minutes or so.Remember the object is to swing rhythmically are not attempting a 300 yard drive!

Address;You should stand with your feet just under the width of your shoulders ,a slightly narrower stance helps with balance,and helps you swing more rhythmically. Your toes should be level and in line with your shoulders ,again check in a mirror at home and get used to the feeling.You line up to the target line or fractionally left of it.Ball position is level with your left heel.Further back will encourage a hooking shot.This brings us to the last point, weight transfer.

Weight Transfer;Weight transfer refers naturally enough to the transfer or shift of your weight from the right side to the left.(opposite sides for lefties).The backswing requires you to pull your weight onto the back foot and indeed you should feel this in your right thigh and as you swing through the ball that weight must move onto the left leg, if it stays back on the rear leg you will turn the club over and rotate to the left causing the ball to hook.A practice drill I use is to
address an imaginary ball while my left calf is against a low pillar in my garden, as I swing I concentrate on pushing my leg into that pillar.This also forces me to swing in time and finish in a balanced position.Try it.

I hope these tips can help you cure that hook and give you something to do in the bedroom on a rainy day.

Happy thoughts

Mr Putt is a weekend hacker and gives regular private tuition www.golfamateur.co.uk/golf

Additional Info On Golf Today

Narrow Your Focus
Consistently making short putts is as much a mental challenge as it is a physical one. To help maintain concentration, find a blade of grass directly in front of the middle of the hole as you prepare to strike the putt. Don't look at the hole itself or the back of it, but simply try to roll the ball over the spot on the front of the hole. Using the front of the hole makes the target closer and makes your focus that much more specific.
...Golf Tips magazine

You've heard that a golf-specific workout will help you get more distance, so you're pumping iron, jogging religiously, stretching - but you still haven't gained any distance off the tee. What's the deal? An exercise program will indeed help you gain distance, but you also need to have good swing technique to take advantage of your strength and flexibility.
...golf news

You can�t fire a gun unless you pull the trigger, right? A similar concept also applies to the golf swing, which also usually requires a �trigger move� to get the body moving. Now, not everyone has a trigger, some manage to swing well from a static position to a dynamic position. But for the rest of us who often find confusion when it comes to where to start the golf swing, a trigger move can help you start swinging in a fluid and consistent manner.
...The Golf Channel

You learn to play golf by feel, not mechanics alone. Too much detail is confusing. You cannot think your way through a golf swing. You feel your way!
...PGA professional golf

Lean Left
It's critical to start and keep your weight toward your front foot during the entire motion of a bunker shot. This encourages the club to sustain its speed through impact, which in turn creates the wave of sand necessary to carry the ball in the air.
...Golf Tips magazine

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