There's an ongoing joke in my regular foursome that the easiest shot in golf is the greenside bunker shot because it's the only shot in golf where you don't have to actually hit the ball. Watch the Golf Channel or read Golf Digest and the pros will tell you that when they miss they often miss for the bunker. Of course we high/mid handicappers know that the bunker shot is not the easiest shot in golf. So why do the pros think it's so easy?
That question never really occurred to me. But I was shooting the shit with this pretty good golfer and he set me straight. When the pros play the rough around the greens is thick and deep. If the ball is sitting down in thick, deep rough it's hard to predict how the ball will spin and release, making chipping very tricky. So the pros will often prefer to be in the bunker because they know exactly how the ball will come out. But for us hackers playing at the local muni the rough around the greens is probably just a couple of inches, making chipping fairly straight forward. No need to play out of the bunker when chipping from the short rough is easier.
This is a huge revelation for me. Now when I play at Chuck Corica I'm no longer going to test my bunker skills by missing for the sand traps. But if I play at a harder course in tournament setup then I'll miss toward the beach. And that's my daily golf tip, plan your misses on the thickness of the greenside rough.
