Golf Terms

Series Summary

Though Musselburgh, Scotland is home to The Old Links, oldest golf course in the world, golf is rumored to have begun in the Netherlands in 1297. After seven hundred years it still follows the same basic premise: hit a ball into a hole using a stick; the person who gets it in the least number of hits, wins. Today, a golfer may have any number of sticks, called clubs, made up of wood, graphite, or titanium. Each club has a specific use depending on the type, whether it’s the driver for an opening long ball, the wedge for shots out of the sand trap, the putter for the last short shot into the hole, or a variety of irons for anything in between.

In this free video series a professional golf instructor, Hill Marks, will show you several tips for hitting out of the sand. Hill will begin by introducing you to a few common golf terms and stances appropriate for the bunker. You'll then learn a few tips to help you position your body and hit the golf ball according to your particular golf lie. Hill will then show you several methods for using various golf clubs in order to help you get out of the bunker and closer to the pin. In the end your golf knowledge and sand game will improve, which will help you play better and score lower.

Video Transcript

"Okay, so now we're in a sand trap but I want to familiarize you with all the terms that you may encounter when you're in the sand trap. So this is what's called a green side bunker, because there's the green right there. But, we're at a driving range here so this also, we're also going to be able to hit our long irons and fairway woods out of this trap. I want to show you, this is a good lie in sand. The sand is very dry today. Let's say the ball, you hit a high lofted iron and it landed in the green side bunker, okay that's called a fried egg. So the ball is somewhat submerged underneath the sand. This is a bad lie because it's in somebody's footprint. People are supposed to rake the traps but they don't always do that. So what you want to avoid in the sand trap is staying in it too long. So whatever situation you're faced with, the most important thing is to get out of the sand trap. So when you get what's called a sand save, that means you're in a green side bunker and you've got the ball out on the green and you made the putt so you saved par. So those are some terms and we'll cover some other terms when you're in the sand trap series here."