What club do you use? If the ball isn't sat up on the grass I won't use anything longer than a seven. I don't particularly try to hit down in those situations but the higher the loft the easier it is to get out.

But the number one rule in that situation has to be: Just get to the fairway. Even if you have to hit back toward the tee-box. It is usually more trouble than it's worth to try and continue making progress. Just get back to safety

Indeed. It took me a while to grasp this! I admit I still struggle with it now and will often play a high risk shot in the name of going forwards. It usually backfires to be honest.

just greenside bunkers

i just seemed to have this mental block about playing a shot that you were actually meant to not hit the ball clean

it was always a bit surreal as my short pitching in general was one of the strongest parts of my game, give me a tight lie and having to play a flop shot over a bunker and i had no issue with that, put me in the bunker and all that i was thinking about was just getting it out.

if you listen to coaches and pundits the shot over the bunker would be considered the much harder shot to play as well

It depends on the rough and the lie. If the grass is higher than the ball then I won't use anything lower than a 9 iron.

I understand that you're suppose to just knock back on, but when you've got 250 yards to go then it's mentally so tempting to try to get enough distance so you take a 7/8 iron on the next shot. That's usually followed by a 15 yard duff!

But then I managed to duff the ball 20 yards with a 5 recovery from the fairway - twice - when I played 9 on Wednesday. I'm just so massively inconsistent.

Yah, I used to have that. But now my set up routine seems to work.

1. Step up to ball, with ball an inch more forward then normal.
2. Open stance (rotate so as to move leading foot back).
3. Compensate for (2) by allowing the club face to fall open (don't turn wrists, loosen grip then let it fall open then regrip)
4. Stare at sand behind ball.
5. Remind myself that if I don't want to lose golf balls I shouldn't play golf.
6. Do a full swing being particularly mindful of the follow through.

This seems to work nearly all the time for me. The only bunkers I fear are truly deep ones. There's two on 17th at my home course that are horrendous. One of them when I stand in it I can't see the flag if it's more than a yard from the fringe. The lip on that must be over 1.8 metres high because it's above my eye level

i knew all the theory, it really was just a mental thing , i was getting coaching from my county when i was in my teens and worked specifically on bunker shots with the coaches but still struggled to get over that mental block

Bunkers never really bothered me in the past unless it was a plugged lie. When I was young I got an old sand iron cranked back to 64 degrees and practiced relentlessy with it from bunkers and also off tight lies.

Plugged lies used to always give me bother but I guess that's the case with a lot of people. I was out the other day and filmed a couple of plugged lie bunker shots from an old practice bunker just to have a look at the transition of weight on my lower half as I was making contact. - https://youtu.be/3Um588eBr-c

Damn.

My tee and fairway work was good today, even in the face of 20mph gusts. But my putting was awful. Three putted most holes. Eventually got around Rye in 93 but it felt ugly. If my putting had been on form I'd have gone round in the low 80s.

But what're ya gonna do?

I'm steadily improving - scored 106 yesterday. It was only a par 69 but it's similar to what I used to score when I was a club member a few years ago and played regularly.

My putting was awful as well - so that's an obvious thing to concentrate on now.

My problem was the speed of the greens. I just couldn't keep my speed down. I had one excellent putt but that was from the fringe so clearly the longer grass helped to slow my ball down :-/

Ditto. I was playing a pretty decent course so the greens were faster and had a lot more gradient than I was used to.

Tried out a new sand iron tonight, hit around 50 bunker shots with it, filmed the last few just for a look at my swing. Glad I did as I spotted something wrong straight away. - https://youtu.be/2lnbjRsNzL4

Hopefully get back out tomorrow and work on it a bit more.

The greens at our club are excellent and visitors always complement them.
However, the speeds change constantly due to our classic weather conditions - hot and dry followed by rain and wind etc. - and how they've been maintained/cut that week.
At a dinner on Friday for one of our Pro's leaving to become head Pro at another club a few of us had a long chat with our greenkeeper. That was a very interesting conversation. He told us a lot about which greens will always be fast and which will change rapidly according to weather conditions.
You can putt to perfection on the practice greens and find that certain course greens just do not match those conditions.
How many of us practice "monster" putts on the practice green which we hardly experience in a match? My Pro told me to practice six footers regularly.
There's nothing worse than putting 20/30 feet within the "dustbin lid" then missing the
short follow up.

my practice putting routine was always drop 10 balls roughly in a circle about 3-4 feet away and then rinse and repeat moving a couple of feet farther away each time until i got to about 9-10 feet

"Well out!" as they say.
The problem is the huge diversity of the quality and maintenance of bunkers on each course.
It's almost a joy to see your ball in a freshly raked and "fluffed" bunker when other days they're baked and crusted and you hit clay just under the surface.
I was watching a Masters tournament when Jack Nicklaus commented on a bunker shot by saying "That's actually the toughest type of sand you can get out of".
I thought "Come and play with us Jack - that's bloody talcum powder not wet builder' sand!"
Having said that, the bunker was so large you could have parked a Motorhome alongside and spent a week's holiday with the family in it.

Rory McIlroy sunk 55 consecutive practice 10ft putts in 2014 at East Lake, Atlanta.
The cameras actually cut to his practice whilst the tournament was underway.

The sand used at a couple of major venues is produced about 5 minutes away from me. Unfortunately it's not used at my course.

I'm lucky enough to have played a lot of top courses and your right, the variations in sand is massive. I have 3 courses with a mile or so from me and the bunkers all play completely different. A good reason I suppose to have a practice round before playing in a competition at a course you dont know well.

I'm thinking of buying something like this:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/...=AV66YXQU7XCPB

A bit pricey but looks like it would come in handy.

Homebase near me are selling good size squares of artificial grass for about £7 - excellent for practicing chipping with foam balls or with real balls out in the garden.

I got bored with my putting mat because of the lack of variety - straight shots all the time.
All the greens on our course have individual speeds, slopes etc.
Some are dead straight though and I suppose it would help you develop a consistent action.

At this point I just need to gain confidence in knocking in a straight putt from 4-5 feet.

That sounds interesting. If I laid one on my back lawn I'd be able to practice breaks. Only problem is that my lawn is quite lumpy so I'm not sure how well it'd sit. If my feet sink into it it won't be realistic putting

I've actually got a special foam mat I bought a while ago I think it's the 'Birdie ball' one. I don't use it though as it's a pain to unroll indoors and doesn't sit well on the lawn. I keep telling myself I should build a folding platform for it but so far haven't got around to it.

Something this but I'm thinking I'd rather not glue the matt down.

That looks good, I'm tempted by it too.

A bit of rain and my putting is back on form. Greens felt a lot safer tonight which is probably why I went round in 86. Had a couple of blow up holes but that was fine as I was experimenting a bit.

I think you may have misunderstood.
They're no use for putting as they're lawn length grass so okay for chipping off.
I've used it in my hallway (with foam practice balls) and on the patio.
I bought a doormat size piece for £5+ but the £7 pieces are big enough to stand on with the ball as well.

Do many on here practice their putting often? It can be boring but can account for 30%-50% of your shots in a round so a massive part of the game.

I was a very good putter 15-20 years ago. I took a break from the game for a while and since I went back it's been the weakest part of my game. It's soul destroying when you are hitting the ball really well and rarely ever taking advantage. A wee while back I played 9 holes on a tough championship course and had a birdie putt on every hole, many of them good birdie chances yet I shot +2.