Reading The Lie Of The Golf Ball Correctly (Video) - by Pete Styles
Reading The Lie Of The Golf Ball Correctly (Video) - by Pete Styles

I think for lot of golfers, one area that can cause concern in the bunker is the different variety and type of different bunker shots that you would get specifically caused by the lie of the ball. So when we get into a bunker, we’ve got to assess the type of lie that we’re in and how we’re going to play the shot. We’re going to look at few different types of lies. So the first one would be a ball that’s sitting up or down in the sand, if the ball is rolled into the bunker, the chances are the ball is going to be sitting on top of the sand, and then you can just play that one out nice and cleanly. You don’t need to hit it too hard. And when it lands on the green you should impart plenty of back spin because the club is enabling good contact with the back of the ball or the sand on the back of the ball at the same time, then land the ball on the green and spin it. But if the ball is flown in from a height, landed in the bunker and plugged itself, it might be sitting down a little bit in the bunker where you can only see half the ball, playing a ball from this position is a plugged live we would call it, is far harder. And if I was to hit down and smash that ball out chances are it would have a much bigger cushion of sand between the club face and the ball. The ball then would effectively come out fat, the ball would come out on a big cushion of sand, land on the green, but have a lot less spin, because the club wasn't able to get to the ball and spin it. So if it’s deep down, you need more power and it will have less spin. If the ball is on a good lie, slightly less power and the ball will have more spin. The other considerations we might have in a bunker is the slopes.

You can see if my ball was towards the front of this bunker, up on this slope, because it’s an inclined slope going up, the ball is going to go higher. If a ball goes higher from this slope as it flies higher, it flies shorter and lands and stops quite aggressively and spins. Likewise if I had a down slope, if I was playing back down this way towards the camera, I'm on a down slope, the ball comes out lower, comes out further, comes out faster, lands on the green and shoots on. So the up and the down slope can affect where the ball finishes and how I should therefore play it. The other consideration might be just the firmness or the wetness of the sand. If you’re playing in firm sand as I am today, it’s quite wet here, if I play it from this sand I would generally find the sand plays quite fast and the ball comes out quite quickly, could land on the green and shoot off. Yet if it’s got a couple of days a sunshine on it, nicely softly raked over and its all fluffy, if I hit into that sand, the club would bury itself a little bit more, slow down a little bit and probably come out a little bit shorter. So we’ve got all those different lies, all those different elements that we need to take account for when we’re setting up to a shot, we always need to read the lie and then play the appropriate golf shot, to try and get as close to the flag as possible. A lot of that will come with experience, the more bunker shots you play the better you’ll get at it, but don’t forget in a bunker, make sure you read the lie to get the ball as close to the flag as possible.
2015-11-02

I think for lot of golfers, one area that can cause concern in the bunker is the different variety and type of different bunker shots that you would get specifically caused by the lie of the ball. So when we get into a bunker, we’ve got to assess the type of lie that we’re in and how we’re going to play the shot. We’re going to look at few different types of lies. So the first one would be a ball that’s sitting up or down in the sand, if the ball is rolled into the bunker, the chances are the ball is going to be sitting on top of the sand, and then you can just play that one out nice and cleanly. You don’t need to hit it too hard. And when it lands on the green you should impart plenty of back spin because the club is enabling good contact with the back of the ball or the sand on the back of the ball at the same time, then land the ball on the green and spin it. But if the ball is flown in from a height, landed in the bunker and plugged itself, it might be sitting down a little bit in the bunker where you can only see half the ball, playing a ball from this position is a plugged live we would call it, is far harder. And if I was to hit down and smash that ball out chances are it would have a much bigger cushion of sand between the club face and the ball. The ball then would effectively come out fat, the ball would come out on a big cushion of sand, land on the green, but have a lot less spin, because the club wasn't able to get to the ball and spin it. So if it’s deep down, you need more power and it will have less spin. If the ball is on a good lie, slightly less power and the ball will have more spin. The other considerations we might have in a bunker is the slopes.

You can see if my ball was towards the front of this bunker, up on this slope, because it’s an inclined slope going up, the ball is going to go higher. If a ball goes higher from this slope as it flies higher, it flies shorter and lands and stops quite aggressively and spins. Likewise if I had a down slope, if I was playing back down this way towards the camera, I'm on a down slope, the ball comes out lower, comes out further, comes out faster, lands on the green and shoots on. So the up and the down slope can affect where the ball finishes and how I should therefore play it. The other consideration might be just the firmness or the wetness of the sand. If you’re playing in firm sand as I am today, it’s quite wet here, if I play it from this sand I would generally find the sand plays quite fast and the ball comes out quite quickly, could land on the green and shoot off. Yet if it’s got a couple of days a sunshine on it, nicely softly raked over and its all fluffy, if I hit into that sand, the club would bury itself a little bit more, slow down a little bit and probably come out a little bit shorter. So we’ve got all those different lies, all those different elements that we need to take account for when we’re setting up to a shot, we always need to read the lie and then play the appropriate golf shot, to try and get as close to the flag as possible. A lot of that will come with experience, the more bunker shots you play the better you’ll get at it, but don’t forget in a bunker, make sure you read the lie to get the ball as close to the flag as possible.