The Golfers Mind

"The inner game has always been the last frontier in golf. Why? Because the source of all  excellence  is  within, and  because  that's  usually the  last place we look  for it."

Timothy Gallwey

The Inner Game of Golf

Balance

Centre Of Gravity - Balance

Masters Mind Mastery

Play With The Edge

The Golf Grip

Player & Snead On Sand

Golf Chip Shot

Fear Of Failure In Golf

New Groove Regulations

Golf Anger Management

NLP Anchoring 4 Golf

Improve Your Golf Focus

Unconscious Mind in Golf

Golf Imagery Controls Play

NLP & Hypnosis for Golf

Golf 1st Tee Nerves

Tour Putting Technique

5 Must Have Golf Skills

Greatest Putters

Aim & Alignment Series

  1  Overview

  2  Aim In Mind

  3  Dominant Eye

  4  Precision Targeting

  5  Learn And Focus

  6  Poor Aim/alignment

The Golfers Mind

Golf Sand Instruction by Gary Player and Sam Snead

Sam Snead's golf sand instruction

Instruction on the cardinal rules of sand trap play (explosion-type) are as follows:

1. Settle your feet firmly, digging in, so that nothing can shift under you during the swing; also, since it's against the rules of golf to ground your club in a trap, this will enable you to test the depth and consistency of the sand.

2. Play the ball off the left heel from a well-open stance and with the club-face laid back as open as possible for quick loft.

3. Let the arms and hands do the work, with little leg action; The swing is straightforward from an upright position, with plenty of wrist snap at impact.

4. Be sure the golf club head goes down and forward and emerges with a full follow-through. If your left palm is facing downward at the finish, you've kept the club head open and followed through with good form.

Some particularly tough hazard shots you'll meet and golf sand instruction on how I play them:

Ball in a footprint: Hit it! Added to the fact that it's an explosion shot, the ball is rimmed around with sand and needs extra excavating. If it's a deep depression, switch from a sand iron to the nine-iron or fairway wedge, both of which have quicker "bite".

Ball bunkered in downhill lie at back of trap: You get these back-slope babies now and then. First, take more sand back of the ball than on the flat: dig in a good two inches behind the ball. Close the club-face a bit to conform to the sand's contour. Play the ball back a bit, off the right heel.

Ball in level lie on shallow, firm sand and with no overhang lip: If these four situations exist, use your putter. Use a flat-arm motion, not a chop, so that the blade is parallel to the sand. If you avoid making contact on either the upswing or downswing, which would loft or mash the ball into sand, and strike squarely n the middle , the putter will take you out nicely. I keep my weight forward.

Ball at front of trap, uphill lie: Keep in mind that you're hitting up: therefore, the club head will plough through deeper and deeper sand as it moves toward and through the ball. This means (1) you need to hit a bit closer to the golf ball than on the flat and (2) your follow-through must be especially forceful. My weight remains on the left side and I play the outside-in cut shot, as described before. The club-face stays open and square to the line of flight.

A couple of golf sand instruction tips for working on your sand wedge game I've used: Ralph Guldahl, a great bunker player, liked to break a sand "slump" by practicing dummy swings in which he aimed to take divots of equal size. He wanted his sand divots to be about six inches long and three-quarters of an inch deep. Then "Ralph dropped a ball, took real shots with the same swing.

To improve accuracy at hitting behind the ball, draw a line two inches behind the all or sink a tee. Now aim for these targets, forgetting the ball.

Golf sand instruction illustration

Gary Player's golf sand instruction for the correct stance with relation to the ball and the direction you want to go for different sand shots:

A) Basic golf sand shot - stance is open, left foot facing target considerably and right slightly. Ball is played off left foot. Club face is opened to the right and enters sand about 2" behind ball.

B) Buried lie in the sand - stance is square with only left foot pointed slightly toward target. Ball played farther back in stance with club-face square. Club again enters sand about 2" behind ball.

C) Shot from wet sand - same stance and ball placement as for basic sand shot, and club-face opened to right. Only difference is that club enters sand farther behind ball -about 3 inches- because it will not cut as deeply in wet sand.

D) Uphill shot in sand - same as basic shot except that ball played a bit farther back in stance -note line going to left heel- and club enters sand closer to ball -about 1" from it- player must be extra sure to move club through sand on this shot since it must cut through more sand.

E) Downhill in sand - same as basic except ball played even farther forward in stance -note line going to toe- and club to enter sand farther behind ball- about 3", depending on incline of slope.

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This article was copied from the Internet where unfortunately there were no author or contact details. I make no claim that this work is my own. It  is presented here for your reading pleasure.

Mark