Week Five: Flopping and Sand
Students will be able to:
learn the difference between pitching, flopping, and bunker shots
learn about out of bounds, lost ball, and provisional ball
learn about loft
define integrity
Week 5 Notes:
Chapter 4: When you can’t play the ball as it lies
Out of Bounds (OOB): defined by ground that is beyond the boundaries of the course or any part of the course so marked by the Committee. Defined by WHITE…the line itself is OOB but if defined by white stakes/markers, the INSIDE of the marker is OOB, NOT the stakes/markers themselves.
Options for OOB are straightforward: stroke and distance. But wait, if you don’t know where the ball is, it is considered LOST. If the ball is lost, play a provisional ball, which is basically rehitting your last shot in case you can’t find the original ball. If you know your ball is OOB, you don’t play a provisional. If you know your ball is in the water, you don’t play a provisional. You only play a provisional ball if you don’t know where your ball is…hence it is LOST. The penalty is 1 stroke, regardless.
When in doubt, play a provisional. If you aren’t sure you will find your ball, don’t waste everyone’s time trying to find it (note: you have 3 minutes to search for a ball before it is declared lost). Play a provisional, and if you find your original ball, you can play that ball without a penalty. If you can’t find your ball, you must declare the provisional ball your new ball in play, and only then is the penalty incurred. Make sense?
The most important rule is to play the ball as it lies. But sometimes that simply isn’t possible. Maybe you aren’t ALLOWED to play the ball as it lies (OOB). Maybe you have no idea where your ball is, so you can’t play it as it lies (LOST). Water is a special case, because you have a few more options in your toolbox. We’ll discuss those next week.
Lesson: Sand and Flops
In Intermediate, we only discuss two new skills: sand and flop shots. Sand and flop shots are very similar. A flop shot is essentially a sand shot…on normal grass. You would use a sand shot when you are in the bunker. You would use a flop shot when you need to hit directly over something and have very little to no roll. A flop shot goes even higher than a pitch shot. So how do we tackle these shots?
First, choose your highest lofted club: either sand wedge (56 degrees) or lob wedge (60 degrees). Then, open the clubface. Note that opening the clubface affects your aim, so reposition your feet so that the clubface is open but aimed at the target. This is called an open stance. The ball position should be towards the front foot. Lastly, tilt the grip backwards. See how you are essentially doing the opposite of a chip shot, whose objective was to decrease loft.
For the swing itself, you want to be very wristy- your wrist hinge should be quicker and more aggressive. You should open the clubface even more in the backswing, but you should keep it open through impact. You are flipping your wrists open through impact.
For sand shots, you must hit the sand under the ball. Make a line behind the ball and try to hit the line. Or make a mound of sand and put your ball on top of the sand and try to hit the mound as though it were a tee.