God's driving range
 

Just wanted to recommend this practice to others. I’m lucky to not only live in the country with the greatest number of golf courses per capita, but also to live 5 minutes walk from a beach. The other day, I took my pitching wedge to the beach while picnicking with the family, and hit some shots off soft sand. Not sand shots but basic motion, acquired motion etc. Also tried the ‘great wall of China’ drill. It was such an educational experience that I’ve been back the last couple of evenings to hit more shots in this way.

If you lose lag, flip, fail to load lag or quit then the ball goes nowhere. Also, if you don’t maintain a very steady pivot tripod, clean contact is very difficult. But... after finding it difficult at first you very quickly start to get it. I heard the best compression I have ever achieved on some of these shots – short or long – very much the hitting a stone sound (is this the best sound in the world!!!!). Plus it wasn’t the usual kind of ‘intellectual’ experience I have when practicing of ‘lets try this..., lets try that’ - it was very much an intuitive learning process, more like learning to catch a ball – you either get it or you don’t.

This seems to me like a great way of training in an environment that won’t forgive your mistakes at all – I’d recommend it to anyone near a beach, a desert or a usable bunker. Any dangers with this?

Chris

Depends on Your Desert
 

You have to be a little careful taking divots in some deserts. I play some of my golf at EAFB (Mojave desert). The fairways are not too bad in that you can take shallow divots, but hitting out of the desert is an entirely different matter. You have to be very careful when hitting down. The ground is not sandy soft, but more like sandy stone (ooops, I made a funny :D ). Sprained or broken wrists are a significant possibility if not careful (they do occasionally land the shuttle on this stuff). You might rephrase to say anywhere with soft, deep sand rather than use the ugly, desert word.;)

Sorry, I was entertaining romatic Saharan des*rt notions. We have lots of beaches and golf courses in New Zealand, but not very many real des*rts! Perhaps Bedouin TGMers could use this tip though!

I would stick to the beach or the bunker. Hitting off desert is not fun and ruins your clubs. Trust me I ruined a perfectly good LW by using it on a 40 yard pitch shot from the desert in AZ. Make a funny noise at impact but boy did that thing spin :D
Alex

Watch the Sparks Fly!
 

Yep, if ya pinch one out here real hard, then you can leave scorch marks on the green!:cool: You will also leave score lines on the bottom of your irons.:mad:

Chris
About a month ago, I met a South African during a club competition. On the off chance, I asked him if he knew Ernie Els. He said he did and what's more he had played golf with him. I asked if Ernie had given him any tips and he said yes - 'Practice in the sand dunes'.
We are fortunate to have some massive sand dunes here and they are at their best after a light rain. (The balls don't bury as much and will run to a collection point) You are spot on, they are God's driving range and besides being good practice are great to enjoy. Definitely recommended.

Well I was down to my last few golf balls and it was a Rock Flite that I managed to spin off the green!! :p
But I do agree with practising/hitting shots out of the beach/bunkers as it teaches you so much without actually getting bogged down in mechanics.
A certain Spanish Wizard called Ballersteros learned to play golf this way and he did ok didn't he?
Alex