(We'll also take a look at splashing a ball out of the water.)
Well, the Spartanburg-Herald for today reads, “Brits Take Lead at Augusta.” It starts off with ,”Ian Poulter and Lee Westwood both player from Britain, leading at 8 under par with a score of 136.” The third name of the list? You can guess it: Tiger Woods.
And he's followed by K.K Choi, Ricky Barnes, Anthony Kim and Phil Mickelson, all tied for 3rd place at 6 under par. So we've got one heck of a Masters going on here. Tiger is right there in the hunt. So this puts to rest any thoughts about would Tiger really be rusty when he comes back. Looks like he's playing solid golf at 68, 70 and will likely hang in and be in the hunt. Who knows, we might have Tiger Woods, Phil Mickelson duel to the end, and possibly thrown in with any one of these other gentlemen. It looks like we're in for a great Masters with a lot of tension as well as seeing some great golf.
We'll get some instruction in today. There's an article about Ben Martin, who is the U.S. Amateur runner up last year. That's how he got into the Masters. Ben is a Clemson Tiger golfer. Yesterday, he ran into a very unusual shot. At least one we don't see too often.
“Martin was coming off consecutive bogeys when he decided to layup from 230 yards against the wind, leaving a 100-yard knockdown wedge into the green for his third shot. He 'fatted it' into the stream where he estimated a third of the ball was under water. 'It kind of stayed up so I figured I'd have some fun and go down there and hit it,' Martin said. Such a misadventure called for a small change of wardrobe. 'Some people started cheering when I took my shoes off,' said Martin, who also discarded his socks and hat before adding a rain vest for the resulting splash. 'I really didn't know how it was going to come out. I asked my caddie, 'Have you ever hit one of these before?' and he was like, 'Nope, just hit it and hope.' He got the ball out and over the green but couldn't salvage a decent score.”
Now, the question is, should you ever in a big tournament, I guess we could say the Masters is a really big tournament, should you ever hit a shot you'd never practiced before. I would have to say, possibly, no.
Ben gets an “A” for guts over here. The thing about this shot is that it's simply a bunker shot. You go in there and hit a normal bunker shot. In this case, with only a third of the ball under water, that should not have been a really big issue. As it said in the article, his ball came out and went exploding over the green.
I've seen people hit a ball out of the water with not much more than a little bit of the ball below the surface. If it's too far down, you can't get it out. As you've heard, many times in discussions about bunker shots, you hit behind the ball and the club never touches the ball. It just takes the sand and explodes the sand out and it's the sand that floats the ball out. Sometimes people describe the bunker shot as “splashing the sand out of the bunker and the ball comes with it.
Well, this is the epitome of splashing it out because this is splashing the water to get the ball out. This is exactly as a normal bunker shot. Again, it's judging how hard you have to hit it for how much water you have to displace to get the ball out.
Ben used the right shot, using a bunker shot and just hit it a little too hard. That's because his ball was not that far under water. So if you get into a steam or the edge of a lake and the ball is not completely submerged and you're thinking about playing it, you might have to take your shoes and socks off and get in there and be careful. Remember, you can't ground your club, you cannot let the club touch the water. You can't use your club as a crutch to get into the water. If you touch anything inside the hazard or water, especially the water on the take-a-way, that's going to be a penalty.
So get in there and play a bunker shot and splash the water out. You should have pretty good results.
(Note for Golf School. Look for details soon on our California PPGS schools at Talega Golf Club in beautiful San Clemente, May 17 – 19 and 20 – 22. It's going to be one heck of an experience. Call: 1-888-84SWING(79464) or 1-864-525-7336.)
The Surge!