Fluffy Vs Firm Sand

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This concept video is adjusting your bunker shot for fluffy versus firm sand.

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So basically how you adjust your stroke for different bunkers comes down to

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your ability

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to control the depth of your low point and the shallowness of the swing as well

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as the

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low point issue or the low point location or the sand entry location.

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Really, with the different densities of sand, being able to control depth and

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your steepness

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is really important.

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In general, the fluffier the sand, the more you can get away with shallow, but

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you have

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to be careful with getting the low point too deep.

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When you're hit, it sounds opposite, but when you're hitting out of firmer sand

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, you could

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actually get away with a low point that would be deep because what will happen

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is the sand

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will prevent the club from going too deep.

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One of the hardest things to replicate in bunkers is different densities of

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sand.

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The closest I can do is kind of like cake up a little bit of sand so that the

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ball has

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a big cushion underneath.

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As I do this, I'm also kind of removing some of the sand from another location.

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The only danger is we have rocks at the bottom, so I'm going to bear on getting

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it really

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tight and hard-panny, but I'll discuss that.

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Here if I have a shot where the bunker has a good amount of sand underneath it,

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I can

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get well underneath the golf ball here.

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Now I have to control the depth, and the depth is controlled by the radius, so

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how much my

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arms have released the club or kind of the length of these angles.

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This would be a little bit more of a narrow radius, this would be more wide.

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Getting wider, in general, out of fluffier sand tends to help control the depth

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.

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In addition, being a little bit flatter, so a little bit more vertical and a

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little bit

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more around with the arm action, helps control the depth as well.

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The only thing you have to watch out for is some people when they try to get

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flat, their

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low point moves too far backward, and the bottom of the swing is behind the

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golf ball

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until they tend to err on blading or chunky.

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But in general, getting a little bit flatter will just let you skim the ground.

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One of the things that you want to practice, if you're a higher level bunker

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player, is

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you want to practice being able to steepen or flatten that swing playing a

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little bit,

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kind of go from here to there, kind of like this.

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That will help you in your ability to adjust for different densities of sand.

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Out of the fluffy sand, we're going to err on getting a little bit more flat.

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Out of the hard pan sand, or the sand that's a little bit firmer, or the sand

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where you

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have less depth underneath it, so kind of wet sand, packed sand, we can get a

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little

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bit more vertical or a little bit more steep.

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I want to err on, almost like playing hard pan, which we talked about in the

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finesse

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shot, of hitting it a little bit more towards the toe side of the club, because

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that will

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have a tendency to not dig as much as the heel.

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True out of the firm sand, you're not going to really have much dig, but what

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can happen

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is if you err too much on getting heel contact, I find that either you can

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chunk it or the

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club will skim off the ground.

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It's oftentimes, especially depending on how much bounce you have.

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If you have a low level of bounce, then digging the heel is actually not a bad

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idea.

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But if you have, let's say, 10, 12 degrees of bounce, more kind of normal, then

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you would

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want to err more on getting a little bit steeper with the angle and trying to

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hit it a little

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bit more off the toe.

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So fluffy sand here, ball is sitting way up.

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We're going to feel like we get a little bit more vertical, and we're going to

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swing a

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little bit more around.

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Everything else is going to be the same.

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We're still going to have that right arm fairly straight in the right wrist

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kind of scooping

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under, finishing well around kind of like this.

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So you'll hear, I actually pick that pretty clean.

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Let's try that one more time.

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Because that it's a little hard to simulate a fluffy sand.

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I didn't quite get the depth there right here.

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We'll take a whole bunch over there and flatten it out just a little bit.

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So now we've got a fair amount of cushion underneath the ball.

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We'll get a little bit more aggressive.

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We're trying to hit behind the ball, but still erring on a shallow bottom of

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the swing ahead

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of it.

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So a little bit flatter, kind of like that.

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So there I could feel much kind of longer, flatter bottom of the swing coming

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from a

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flat position.

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That would have worked out really well, even out of fluffy sand.

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The one thing you have to watch out for out of fluffy sand, or one thing that

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you have

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to watch out for is it's harder to get a lot of spin, because usually the ball

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is sitting

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down just a tiny bit, where out of firm sand you can get your contact point

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closer to the

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golf ball, so it's often easier to get the ball to check up.

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Okay, so now let's just see how far away are those rocks.

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Okay, so this is on the firmer side now, because I kicked all the sand from

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there to the other

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one.

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Now it's sitting down a little bit, but it's firmer.

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So I'm going to get a tiny bit closer, not like way over it, but tiny bit

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closer and

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handle a little bit more up, and I can air on kind of toe side of the club

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getting contact,

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kind of like that.

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And you'll see that that one checks up nicely, so it has a little bit more of

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kind of a cut

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path feel, but still a really good under scoop release, and I'm airing on

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hitting it a little

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bit more towards the toe.

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That can work really well, especially out of, you know, when I grew up on the

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east coast

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in the winter time, some bunkers would be almost like clay.

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That style works really well out of those bunkers.

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The place where you can get a little bit tricked up is if there's a fair amount

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of sand that's

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kind of crusty on top, so if you do come down steep, it's going to, the depth

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is going

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to be too great, and you're going to have a hard time with distance control, in

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which

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case you probably air a little bit more on the fluffy side, even though the

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sand feels

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firm, and that's why when you're testing the sand, you're going to, or when you

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're taking

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your stance, you're testing the depth and how deep the sand goes when you're

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digging

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your feet in.

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But that's one of the easy ways to help you figure out how to adjust for fluffy

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versus

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sand.

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In general, fluffy, you're going to be a little bit flatter, bottom of the

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swing may be a

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little bit deeper, but a little bit flatter, kind of a longer contact with the

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sand.

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And then when the sand is firm, you're going to get a little bit closer, a

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little bit more

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upright, and you're going to air on hitting it a little bit more on the toe.

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All of those help make it easier to get underneath it.

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The fluffy shot is not going to spin quite as much as the firmer sand, but

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hopefully you'll

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be able to adjust those by taking your stock technique and making some of these

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couple

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little adjustments for firm versus fluffy sand.