The lesson to learn here is simple — if you can't play a decent bunker shot, get out of the sand.
Whatever you have to do, get your ball onto the grass. Don't pretend to be Tiger Woods or Phil Mikelson. Don't line up your shot, open up your stance, dig your feet into the sand, open up your club face and pretend to enter the sand two inches behind your ball, following your swing through and lifting the ball gently onto the green to roll with the break just inches from the hole.
You and I both know that you will have to walk two feet forward and do the same thing over and over again until a new Panama canal is finished in the bunker and you, the ball and half the beach front of Fort Lauderdale is laying in a pile just outside a big empty dirt hole next to the green.
If you've have already mastered the bunker shot, by all means, put your ball on the green and go for the sand save. There is nothing more satisfying in golf than a beautifully played bunker shot. Any golfer will tell you that it is a joy to watch another golfer play a sweet sand shot and it is even nicer to be able to make the shot yourself. If you haven't reached that point in your game yet, don't pretend that you have. Everyone will know as soon as you make contact with the sand and at that point, there is no turning back. The damage is done. You have made your decision and you will have to continue your canal digging expedition or openingly admit that you were more afraid of what others would think of you than you were of how you, yourself performed that day. It would be even worse if you were competing with a team.
So you're not a bunker player — yet. That's okay. Most casual golfers aren't, eventhough they play like the ditch–digging duffers described above. Bunkers are one of the reasons casual golfers consistently have high scores and leave the course frustrated, over-analyzing what went wrong with their round. The answer is almost always the same — they tried to play beyond their capabilities.
Remember, you can't let your club touch the sand before you hit your ball when it is in the sand (if you are playing by the rules). Before you walk into the sand trap, look at your ball. Is it laying on top of the sand or is it partially or deeply buried in the sand. If it is a buried lie, take your sand wedge or 9-iron with you into the bunker. If it is laying on the top of the sand, you have more choices. Is there a high edge around the bunker or is it a shallow sand trap? If you are going to have to hit your ball high to get it out of the bunker, take your sand wedge or 9-iron. If you don't have to hit the ball very high, you can take almost any club. Take the one you are most comfortable hitting. The goal here is to pick a section of grass that is the closest to where the ball is and just try and "pick" the ball out of the sand and get it to the grass. It doesn't have to be pretty. It just has to get to the grass in one shot. If you can putt it out of the bunker, do it. Just make sure you get it out in one shot. If you do that, you will be at least one shot (probably more than that) ahead of the idiot that tried to be Tiger or Phil — and even though you may have used your putter, you will have looked better doing it.
Your next shot will be off grass. You are comfortable with that environment. You were successful bringing the game back to you instead of being forced to play it from a place that is unfamiliar and uncomfortable to you. You are back in control. You played by the rules. You didn't break any rules. If you finish well, you could still par the hole. All of sudden, bunkers aren't such a bad thing anymore. The game would still be easier without them, but you know they aren't going away. You will always have to deal with them. Every once in a while, you are going end up in one. Until you master the bunker shot, you have going to have to play through them. At least they don't have to control your game.
Remember, every lesson you learn on 9Irony.org applies to the game of golf as well as to the world of business.
The business lesson is the same and it's just as simple — if you don't have the skills to do the job, don't do it.
