Effective Golf Tips on How to Play Out of a Wet Sand Bunker
Playing the ball out of a wet sand bunker requires you to adjust your technique to hit the ball effectively. Knowing the Rules of Golf and what you can and can't do in certain situations will help as well. What if your ball ends up in standing water or in a puddle inside a bunker? The good news, under Rule 25-1 b (relief from abnormal ground condition), is that you get a free drop. The bad news is you have to drop inside the area of the bunker. Make sure you read the rule to know exactly what to do in a standing-water situation in a bunker.
Make ball-first contact from a wet fairway bunker
If your ball ends up in a wet fairway bunker, first inspect the lie. If the ball is buried in the wet sand, it's probably too risky to try to advance it too far. Your only choice may be to take your medicine and wedge the ball into the fairway to lessen the damage. If you have a reasonable lie and can get the clubface onto the back of the ball, you can get off an effective shot with some adjustments. Take a wide stance and dig in for maximum stability. Keep your lower body quiet during your swing, using your arms more than usual to swing the club. Play the ball back in your stance to ensure ball-first contact and your best chance to hit an effective shot from wet sand in a fairway bunker.
Dig the ball out from a wet greenside bunker
From a wet greenside bunker your expectations should be to just get the ball on the green rather than trying to get it close. You won't be able to take advantage of the sand wedge's bounce in wet sand either. If you open the clubface and use the bounce, as you would for a normal bunker shot, the club will literally bounce off the sand and you'll catch the ball with the blade, probably firing it out of the bunker uncontrollably and over the green. Instead of opening the face, you want to square the face, maybe with a pitching wedge instead of a sand wedge, enter the sand an inch or so behind the ball and dig the sand out with the ball onto the green. If the ball is buried in wet sand, you have to take the club up steeply and dig even deeper under the ball to get it out. Once again, if you're able to get the ball onto the green from such a difficult lie, you've done well.