Did you also happen to note that you felt more sand and less ball when you moved the ball back? I know sand shots are supposed to take all sand, and the sand carries the ball out, but until I moved the ball back in my stance, I usually felt the ball through impact. No more....... all sand now!!!
Yep. You are correct. I have on occasion had difficulty, especially when laying my sand wedge way open with slicing right through the sand and hearing a little click. This was no ball first contact, but with the ball so far forward I was not able to penetrate deeply enough in the sand to slide all the way under the ball. The wedge seemed to glide up too quickly (low point probably behind the ball rather than ahead). Of course those were not pretty shots as they tended to rocket out of the bunker with far more pace than expected.
Good catch, Uppd. BTW, I played 36 yesterday with continued success out of the bunkers. All (ALL) my bunker shots so far using this method have come out nice and high with good control. One sandy yesterday with a couple of close calls.
__________________ _________________________________
Steph
Distance is Magic; Precision is Practice.
__________________ The student senses his teacher’s steadfast belief and quiet resolve: “This is doable. It is doable by you. The pathway is there. All you need is determination and time.” And together, they make it happen.
It is hard to explain in TGM terms how this works so well...is it a TGM-sanctioned stroke or just an easy way to compensate...but Gary Player, Chi chi and Lee can't all be doing it so wrong.
An "apparent Back in the stance" ball position means up plane normally (assuming a square/square plane line)...so an onplane stroke should be really out and down with this ball position...
But Lee seems to make a fair point about ball too forward..especially in a swing with minimal weight transfer...
I would say you hit the nail on the head there about low point sand management.
For too long I've had the ball way forward and have had to manipulate my low point management because I know I'll thin the ball if I don't! This leads to the opposite happening and I keep hitting it fat.
To be fair, I think this has happened by accident though because Dave Pelz says the 'ball forward' is an illusion due to the open stance.
Must go experiment!
__________________ The student senses his teacher’s steadfast belief and quiet resolve: “This is doable. It is doable by you. The pathway is there. All you need is determination and time.” And together, they make it happen.
I just started reading Trevino's "I can help your game" 1972 publication in UK
In his bunker play chapter he advises " when you are playing from sand, it is important to play the ball off the left heel"...maybe he studied the technique of Gary Player later in his life...??
all sand now!!! 
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