Familiar Pitfalls In The Green

In sports, the main goal isn't just to achieve the highest scores, but also to win over the other competitors. It is all about having a lead, dominating, and having the advantage over them. On the opposite hand, golf is a matter of having less and much more distance, and much less made strokes in sinking the hole. The perfect drive, good club, and the correct approach will ultimately bring in the low score that results in a good game. But, being able to to that impeccably, you must do a lot more than the "whack and go."

Hazards in golf are bunkers, which can either be sand traps or water hazards. Though the sands and water holes beautify the course that you are playing in, they are silent killers of your game and ruins your score - a lot. In order to gain the good scores, a player need to know how to adapt his/her shots so it'll be not that difficult to undergo these. Besides the two hazards, there are other game spoilers too - trees and weedy areas. Just when you thought that they add beauty to the course, you could turn out to be frustrated and "whacking" your club.

Sandtraps and Fairway Bunkers: A bunker is a depression in the course and in the Fairway, and sometimes contain sand. A player won't get any penalties, but the ball must be put back into the fairway or the green. In order to get out of the bunker, the golfer should have to choose a club depending on the lie of the golf ball, whether good or bad. A lie is a position where your golf is after you make the shot. A good lie is easy to address as the ball will be on a flat surface and sometimes it won't need any club changes at all. A fairway bunker will generally provide a good lie. To recover, you must have a slightly open stance and marginally bury your feet to hold balance. Focus on striking at a distance of 2-inches near the golf ball and deliver the shot. However, a bad lie will happen when the ball will end up in a sand bunker. It can be either a Fried Egg lie or a Buried lie. A Fried egg lie is termed as such with the way the ball is buried which is like an egg yolk. You ought to slightly rotate the golf club to make the clubface to point towards the ball instead of the sky, and hit the ball and the sand simultaneously. A buried lie is hard to deal with as a big part of the golf ball is buried. You can use the same technique in a fried egg lie, but you may need to hit harder and utilize a pitching wedge.

Water Hazards: This is a significant crisis among golfers. It can be a pond, lake or a swamp within or along the golf course. This is an ugly situation to be in as you will earn a penalty stroke when the golf ball will land on this type of hazard. When you're near or must go through a water hazard, you must ensure to hit the golf ball a bit far, at least 15-20 yards away from the water. Deliver a full and aggressive swing.

Blindshot/Blindspot: This could be anything from trees, stones or obstacles blocking a player's view of the hole or green. Plan a path where you'd want your ball to go - top of the tree concealing your view, or top of a rock. Walk or drive by first until you see a view of the green then plan the path. When your ball lands in trees, prevent in making your ball fly as it may collide with branches and will mean more harm to your shot. Aim for making the ball rolling than getting the usual height as you normally do.

Swamps/Weeds: You must treat them like your normal water hazards and concentrate in making your shot a bit too far from the hazard to prevent it from landing there. A Mid-Iron Club provide you with extra loft and facilitates to steer you away from the hazard.

Getting into these hazards are normal. After lots of practice, this won't completely make you safe to these, but learning on how to deal with it will be better for your game. Being adaptive is an edge to playing golf.