bounce with tight lies

[David]

need some help with this. I have tried to use little bounce as possible clubs for this and mainly looked for bounce heavy clubs from the sand. Finished lesson 41

[David]

What is your specific problem? Are you hitting it fat or blading shots or something else?

[David]

With a tight lie, the bounce gets in the way of hitting the ball on the club face. It ends up connecting with the leading edge and leads to skulled, bladed shots with my 56 degree sand wedge. It feels like the bounce of the club is bouncing off the turf. I have best results with little bounced wedges when playing tight lies. Thx.

[David]

If your club is actually bouncing up into the back of the ball then your angle of descent may be too steep. If you’re properly pre-surfed and you surf a bit more through the motion then your angle of attack should provide safety through impact. However, if your front shoulder is tipped downward and/or your upper body moves forward instead of or with your surf, this could cause a bladed shot. In addition, be sure to keep the arms pressed down through the shot. High hands, I find, equals the house of pain.

I was at the range yesterday practicing chipping from tight lies after I had refreshed my memory on proper technique and I must say the results were very good. Even an occasional chunky shot wasn’t too bad due to proper use of the club’s sole and the shallow angle of descent. I also played around with the flop shot. Setting up square to target with a wide open face was very odd to me. But it actually works quite well.

If I’m incorrect on any of this, perhaps Team Tathata will correct me.

[Les]

When I am setting up to a chip shot I like to see the ball hitting the club face on the 4th groove. Usually this requires me to increase my grip pressure through impact so that the club head doesn’t lag behind.

I too have been finding success with the flop/bunker shot taught here. I recommend lots of practice on the flop shot. I have found that I can sweep under the ball and make almost no contact if the lie is too fluffy. It takes a lot of courage to make that full of a swing knowing it should only go about 20 yards or so.

[Brian]

Curious if anybody has tips chipping when the ground is more soft and muddy? Playing during the rain or in the winter produce more opportunities to chip from soggy ground, than for hardpan lies. If I don’t hit the ball perfectly, I seem to take more mud with my chips, and end up ‘chunking’ the ball more frequently leaving my chips well short of intended target.

Any Suggestions?

[David]

Hi Brian,

With wet/soggy/muddy ground it can be difficult to find firm footing, which may lead to improper movement in the lower body resulting in fat shot. I would recommend videoing some of these shots face on and then comparing your action to video of you hitting the same type of shot in dry conditions.

Let us know what your learn one way or the other. Would love to hear about your progress!