Basic Golf Etiquette - Maintaining Your Cool when You're Sunk in the Bunker

Sand Trap Mayhem

"Maintaining Your Cool when You're Sunk in the Bunker". It is inevitable. Sooner or later you will be playing a round of golf with someone you would prefer to impress and you will stand there helplessly as your ball goes flailing into the sand trap. Depending on the golf course, you may find yourself red faced and cursing right along with about fifty percent of the golfers on the fairway. It just happens. How you react to it and how you attempt to recover your shot is what stands to impress your golfing partners.

There's not a single individual who doesn't find themselves standing at the edge of the bunker contemplating their shot out of it. It can look intimidating no matter how many times you've stood there wondering how you were supposed to save grace in the moment.

Emotional Response Etiquette

"Maintaining Your Cool when You're Sunk in the Bunker". One of the most un-cool things you can do at this point is loose your cool. Standing there and cursing up an impressive storm is anything but impressive and makes you look like a sore loser. There is nothing more unattractive on the golf course than watching someone throw a juvenile fit over something as trivial as the inevitable sand. Rule number one is to stay calm.

Try to remember that everyone does it. Becoming embarrassed and putting pressure on yourself in order to get the shot out of there as fast and as slick as possible will only make the task at hand that much more difficult. Any golf swing taken under tense conditions tends to be a poor golf swing. Relax and approach your ball as you would if it were lying on the fairway. It is the same ball with the same destination that it was prior to landing in the sand trap.

People tend to love the sound of their own advice. While you are attempting to get over your embarrassing moment in front of your important people, understand ahead of time that you will be coached by those around you on the best way to smack the ball back onto the fairway. You don't have to listen to their advice if you don't want to, but keep a few things in mind while saddling up to your sandy golf ball.

If in fact you are particularly tense you already know you are going to have a difficult time with the shot. If you have never had to retrieve your ball form the sand you are going to have a particularly difficult time with the shot. If you have never gotten your ball out of the bunker without numerous tries chances are pretty good you may experience the same frustration. How important are the people around you? Are they potential clients or just friends you golf with?

If it is important to you to prove to yourself that you don't need advice to save yourself from the bunker then by all means don't take the advice that will be arbitrarily unsolicited. If it is more important to you to land the clients or to show that you are a flexible individual, you may want to consider their advice even when they aren't sure what they are talking about. In business golf, a potential client may take your actions on the golf course to be similar to your actions in the office. Are you a team player? Can you fix the problem without too much fuss or do you need your hand held? Are you a reasonable communicator?

While a round of golf is supposed to be a game, remember that prospective clients may be watching you closer than you think. At least considering their advice shows that you are willing to listen and can be flexible with your own thoughts. You may even learn a thing or two.

Sand Trap Etiquette

"Maintaining Your Cool when You're Sunk in the Bunker". It is frustrating to watch your ball sail helplessly into the bunker. It is more frustrating when you are contemplating your shot to realize that you are buried much deeper than you expected because someone else appeared to have been running through the bunker whacking their ball in every possible direction. How well you can hit your ball from the bunker depends on your lie, and often your lie depends on the person who was there before you. How you consider your playing space may speak very well of you if you simply implement just a few basic considerations for those who may follow you.

Don't plunk your way through the entire sand trap. Enter as close to your ball as possible and maintain your position as level with the rest of the course as possible. Climbing all over the sand trap will result in deep footprints, deeper if you are entering and exiting on an incline.

A long bunker shot is considered the hardest shot in the game. It's okay to take your time and evaluate the situation before you plunge into the sand and start randomly whacking away at the ball, even if it might relieve a little tension.

Avoid climbing in and out of the bunker along a steep incline to prevent not only the deep footprints you'll cause but creating a cascade of falling sand as you damage the lip. Some sand trap designs make this a very difficult task and in that case you may not have much of a choice, but do the best you can to leave the property intact.

Even if the individual who preceded you wasn't as kind, be sure to take a moment and rake the bunker as soon as you have completed your shot. This respect for other players goes a long way in helping other player maintain respect for the next person. It is rude to walk away from the sand trap leaving your footprints and club impressions all over the place. Alternate your strokes while you rake so that you don't end up with a huge pile of sand hanging at the lip. Try to keep the surface even and the sand density as close to normal as possible.

The USGA actually has a guideline for rake placement etiquette. Don't just flop the rake o the ground and be done with it. Chances are you found it in the right position, but double check just to be sure. Place the rake just outside the sand trap, flat on the ground, and pointing in the direction of play.

These little etiquette tips make a big impression on those sharing the course with you and really take less than a minute to accomplish. It is better to err on the side of appropriate conduct even if you are being urged to hurry it along.

Making the Shot from the Bunker

"Maintaining Your Cool when You're Sunk in the Bunker". There are countless articles written on bunker shots and they all have varying advice. It can be very difficult to decipher good golf advice from bad golf advice. You also have to take into account that every person is different, so what may be quite effective for one person may produce a totally different result for someone else.

There are a few tips that almost every article in recent publication agrees upon. The first we already covered when we told you to relax. It is beneficial for you to relax through the entire process of the inevitable bunker shot. A tense body will prevent a natural and full swing and will also inevitably bring your head right along with the shot, causing at the very least a slice on the way out of the bunker, if you can drive it out at all.

Some people recommend not taking the time to try to set up a good shot. Sometimes the effects of a failed shot are far worse than just getting the ball out of the bunker in any form possible. This strategy is one you would have to asses while you are still contemplating the ball from outside the sand trap.

Others will tell you that if the ball is fairly high on the sand trap to simply play it like you would a shot from the fairway. If there is little sand under the ball and the shot seems basically straight forward, this may not be a bad approach. While you may not get quite the same distance or accuracy due to even a small amount of sand, you may very well find the strategy relaxes you and produces tolerable results. Again, you would have to evaluate the individual situation prior to deciding this is right for you.

If you choose to play it just like you are still on the fairway, grab a nine iron or a wedge for your shot. Keep your stance open and square the club head. Grip the club down a couple of inches to gain better control.

Regardless of how to choose to play it, don't be afraid to take a full, solid swing from the bunker. Most golfers tend to fear their swing when playing from the sand trap and often this can result in a failed attempt to even return the ball to the fairway. It can be frustrating and embarrassing to find yourself locked in the bunker swing after swing.

Even if you are buried a bit deeper in the sand, you will need a good lie in order to send your ball back into play. Again, don't be afraid to swing at the ball. Even if you can't line up a really good shot from your position, taking your time and evaluating the possibilities will enable you to find the best possible shot under the circumstances.

Find More Tips

"Maintaining Your Cool when You're Sunk in the Bunker". The basics presented here are exactly that. They are the very basics of sand trap etiquette. If you are looking to improve your golf game and find more helpful information on just about anything golf, you owe it to yourself to visit the bestprogolfguide today and check out the vast learning tools you can acquire in just one visit.

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