Bunker play is a necessary and often frightening aspect of a round of golf. On your usual golf course what are the bunkers like?

There are those with good fluffy sand that is quite deep and there are those with not so fluffy sand but still sand and those with almost hard pan just deep to a find sprinkling of sand.

On this last bunker type, the sand iron has a tendency to bounce off the hard surface and cause you to duff your shot. As already stated in a recent article, the object is to get out of the bunker and onto the green taking only one shot. One can not carry several sand irons to play each type of bunker, so the answer is to compromise.

The thing that makes a sand iron bounce to a greater or lesser degree when it makes contact with the sand is the width and the depth of the flange.

A sand iron with a wide and deep flange will bounce on contact with the sand. The ideal type for that deep fluffy sand because it will stay shallow and not knife under the ball as much.

Conversely, a narrow and shallow flange will not bounce as much and will dig into the sand and tend to stop. Certainly not what you want in fluffy sand but ideal for the hard pan type of bunker.

So, what do you do?

Firstly, you have to know what type of base most of the bunkers have on your home course. If the sand is all fluffy and deep, lucky you.

On my course, there are a lot of hard pan type bunkers.

Then, you go to your professional and ask him to order a sand iron with a medium depth and width of flange. This will be useful in all types of bunkers.

Don?t forget that the lob wedge is pretty useful out of a bunker. Practice is needed though to see how it will perform with various swings and ball positions.

Particularly useful for the buried or poached egg lie.

The drill is to hit down onto the edge of the poached egg (the sand ridge around the ball) and do not follow through. The ball should fly up in the air and out of the bunker. It will not be a very long shot however.

You may like the lob wedge for this, or your pitching wedge. The sand wedge may do too, but the flange could get in the way. As usual, practice and trial and error is the only way to tell.

However, the shot is played in the way described above.

Bill Maitland is a thinking, inventive golf guru. He thought out and developed simple techniques and tips which enabled him to lower his handicap from 25 to 18, then from 18 to 15, and finally from 15 to 12. He is a passionate golfer, and delights in helping others with their game should they want his help. Author of GOLF TIPS. An e-Book that takes you step by step to being the best golfer that you can possibly be. To learn about his tips and simple techniques And see his book visit Online Golfers Handbook.