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Sand Saves - Your Game

Not sure what my sand save percentage would be. Today I would guess around 10% - 15%, especially after reading JB's opening thread post. It may have been better back in the day when I was practicing all the time, but I honestly haven't tracked that stat. Mainly because I don't play courses with a lot of sand very often. Then when I do, I'm not in the sand much. I might have to start tracking this myself, just to get a good feel for where I truly do sit.
 
JB said:
A sand save is accomplishing getting up and down from a greenside bunker regardless of score.
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Does it count as two sand saves if you go from one bunker to another and hole out from the second bunker? Haha
 
My sand saves have to be pretty low, probably around 5% or 6%. Just not that many areas around me to practice in the sand, I think there is only one course that has a bunker I can practice out of and it is always busy!
 
I would bet the over estimation is likely due to thinking that you get out of the sand in one shot pretty consistently. I would probably in the 7% to 10% range for sand saves this year, and most of that since I bagged to the RTX 60/14. That club is so awesome out of sand.

Getting out of the sand consistently isn't the problem, it's getting close enough to the pin to one putt out of the sand.
 
I'm thinking by "sand save" you mean out of the bunker and one putt? If that's the case, I can easily see the point of this thread. I've done that once in 20 tries. I'm guessing everyone needs much more practice from the bunkers. My home course recently changed sand and the sand depth is deep. The first time I got in there, I didn't think I'd ever get out. I finally concluded that the best sand trap strategy is to avoid them.
 
Esox said:
For most amateurs just not making double bogey or worse out of the sand is a "save". I like to hit a decent shot. Get it out to a reasonable distance. If I make par, great, but I never want to skull one out or leave it in the bunker. Never tracked it, but I don't make a lot saves.

Kevin
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This.

For me, a sand save is getting it on the green and 2-putting. I would guess that this warped idea I have gets me a DSA (Dave's Sand Save) % of around 85%. My actual sand save number is probably somewhere around 5%...which is the point of the guy's original thought to JB I assume.
 
For me, a successful sand save is getting it out of the sand and onto the green. That would be around 33% of the time, I reckon. As far as getting it up and down from the sand, I'm pretty sure that'd be 0% as I'm not sure I've ever done that (at least not this year). I'm awful from the sand.
 
My sand save percentage is near 25%. I'm better out of green side bunkers than chipping from around the green. I am one of those who, if I see my ball is going to miss the green, pleads for it to get in the bunker, where I can at least swing at it instead of making some twitchy, stabbing, flinch at a chip shot which may go 2 feet or 20 yards.
 
I was 100% yesterday. 1 for 1. I find how well I get out of the sand is dependent on the quality of sand. I'm never any good when it's thick and heavy or really shallow.
 
1/1 today as well. For some reason I'm having really good success with the Solus wedge. Got lucky and put my only attempt three feet from the pin and made the putt.
 
My sand save percentage typically sucks. I feel good about getting out most times, but I just don't seem to ever be able to get it close enough to convert the save. I need to spend more time working on that sort of situation.
 
My sand game had been solid for years till recently. The combination of varying sand conditions and non-existent practice is showing. That will be rectified soon. It's one of those things that I've always overlooked when practicing.
 
Just FYI - I emailed the developers of GolfShot and TourCaddie about what defines a sand save in their apps. The answer is that the statistic is "by the book." That is, it records a sand save any time you have one (or more) sand shot(s) on a hole, and make a score of par or better. Sadly, all those times I got up and down for triple don't count.
 
i'd say i'm at about 5%, not because of my sand play, i get it within 10 feet 50-70% of the time, but i cant put...
 
JB said:
Recently I spent some time speaking with a well known instructor about short game and statistics and overall amateur play. We were speaking of keeping stats and in his opinion, amateur golfers spent too much energy and time focusing on statistics that did not help their improvement such as FIR, GIR and putts per round. In his opinion, statistics that we should be focusing on are things that limit your scoring. Sand saves, blow up holes (higher than bogey) and other numbers that show adversity/saves.

He asked me what I thought the PGA Tour average was on sand saves. My response was 70%. I was not even close. In fact the average is 48% on the PGA Tour. Go to the NCAA and it is slightly lower than 40%. He decided to do a small study recently on bunker play at his home course and asked 56 golfers to chart their sand save percentage for a period of 45 days. He had golfers ranging in skill level from a 2 index to a 14 index and a course that has tons of sand around it. After the 45 days he did some calculations and said their average for sand saves was 6% (6.2% to be exact).

He asked me to chart my sand saves for the next 20 rounds and I obliged (and did this before I had their totals). I think I am a pretty decent bunker player and those that have played with me at outings and get togethers have seen that I have many issues with my golf game, but bunker play is not usually one of them. After those 20 rounds, in which I thought I was playing quite well out of the sand, I was astonished to see my percentage was just over 11%. If you would have asked me right at the end, I would have sworn to you I was around 25-30% in sand saves. But the results don't lie and I was not even close to that.

What do you think your sand save percentage is? Have you ever even thought about it?

Obviously some of this will be based on course conditions, difficulty, etc, but as a general idea, I was pretty astonished. I will have a few more threads similar to this over the next few weeks with some pretty crazy numbers.
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I was also surprised at how low the % was for pros. Then I figured, "I bet the top 20 or so guys have really high sand save %, and the bottom guys have much lower %".

Nope! Highest on tour this year is K.J. Choi at 67%. There doesn't seem to be a correlation between higher sand save % and money list/top players. Now, there are lots of PGA guys with sand save % in the 40's, but no one in the 80's.

I guess it feels like it should be higher because TV shows mainly guys making those saves & rarely shows guys blowing it.

I absolutely suck from the sand - it's on my to-do list for winter practice.
 
I was in two yesterday and failed on both.
 
Was in two today. The first I hit it to one inch. Beautiful blast that landed about 5 feet short of the hole (on a 15 yard shot) and stopped one inch from going in.

The second was on a par three. Left the first shot in and hit the second to about 10 feet. Two putted.
 
2013: In 32 competitive rounds I've been in 34 bunkers and made up & down 50% of the time.
 
A quick check of golf shot says I'm 11% the last 10 rounds, 1 for 9, which is significantly better than the 5% average over the last 2 years. I must admit the courses I mostly play don't have a lot of sand and that for a long time my 10 round average was stuck on 0 before converting one not too long ago.
I haven't really been tracking blow up holes, don't think golf shot does that, but I know that is what kills me.
 
Always worth an annual bump. How's the sand game folks?

I'm terrible at keeping stats, but I can actually remember making some saves this year as opposed to the past. Went 1/1 yesterday in fact. Still probably far more likely not to get up and down, but at least it's better.

As time goes on I'm noticing that equipment plays a big part in this for me. Finding a wedge that matched my swing has made a big difference.
 
0/3 yesterday. Gave myself good looks just couldn't make the putt.
 
TOxic, just plain out toxic.

was in 1 yesterday, managed to get out with a nice shot off the lip into the air with all kinds of side spin on it.

Guess that happens when you dont tough a single grain of sand on the swing
 
mikedean441 said:
TOxic, just plain out toxic.

was in 1 yesterday, managed to get out with a nice shot off the lip into the air with all kinds of side spin on it.

Guess that happens when you dont tough a single grain of sand on the swing
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A little low bounce action will help you there. I was right there last year. It was plain dangerous for awhile.
 
Hawk said:
A little low bounce action will help you there. I was right there last year. It was plain dangerous for awhile.
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yeah it was my MD2 58* I think its pretty high bounce. I just lack technique but its something that will be worked on.

Along with that theres an obvious fear with making full swings in there
 
I hate the sand some of my worst shots seem to come from bunkers
 
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