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How Often Do You Practice in Bunkers?

Oddly enough, our club is just now building one adjacent to the driving range now. Once complete, I'll spend plenty of time in there initially as my sand game SUCKS! After that, maybe a half dozen shots before each round.
 
Both of the courses near my house have a couple of bunkers for practice. None of them though are maintained like the course bunkers so I don't use them that much. I always do at the beginning of the year. It takes me 5 minutes of raking to flatten the sand for some reasonable practice and I always re-rake the bunkers when I'm done. I just wish everyone that used them would do the same thing.
 
We only have one small practice bunker by the chipping bunker next to our range. I don't use it very often though. It is right next to the chipping green where as our greenside bunkers usually have a fair amount of ground in between as they added the bunkers after it was built but didn't want to have to redo the irrigation system so they just put the bunkers outside of that. Depending on the pin location you can get some awkward 20-35 yard bunker shots.

The old course I used to play at in Abilene had a couple of bunkers by the chipping green. I used to practice more back then. I always love going back to play there because the bunkers are so much easier to play from.
 
JB said:
Title says it all. Does your local course have options of bunker practice? Both short and long game or at least different shots?
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The course does but unfortunately playing municipal courses more the practice facilities aren’t that great. Bunkers are one area that courses around me need to maintain better and actually get some decent sand. It’s amazing the difference between even a high end course here vs TPC Deer Run.
 
As often as I can. My club does have a decent practice bunker with varying depths and lies but it's right by the side of the only practice putting/chipping green so there are other people there most of the time. Am very reluctant to practice coming out of the bunker when there are others around as I have a tendency to get a bit thin coming out of them...
 
If I'm at my home course - every time I hit the range, I hit the bunker practice as well.

Nearly every public range here has NO bunker options so if im out at public courses - never
 
the course near me has a pretty good sized bunker. the sand is pretty fluffy, fluffier than most sand in central florida. so practice is a little skewed. but the main reason I don't practice is because I despise the feeling of sand anywhere on me.
 
Do not have one at my range, at least we didn't last year. I've not been over there so far this year because of the weather to investigate whether they put one in or not.
 
A number of the courses I frequent have practice bunkers. Other than a few of the nicer private clubs and resort courses, the practice bunkers aren't usually representative of what you'll find out on those. That said, I still enjoy practicing from them and believe it still helps with my sand play. Being retired I'll often go the closer courses just to get in some short game work, including bunker play.

There's also a stand alone range (no course) that I'm probably at a couple times a week. It has a large bunker situated such that you can play towards their practice "green" ot turn around and hit out to the targets on the driving range. The sand in it is nothing like anything I've run into at area golf courses but still forces the correct technique to play effective green side or fairway bunker shots. About half my range sessions there end with me bringing my last 5-10 balls over to that bunker and playing them out to the practice green and then retrieving them to try and drill targets out on the range.
 
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A few times a year, unfortunately. The practice bunker is by the putting green, which is hard to find empty when I show up. High school practices - boys and girls for 2 schools - make it even harder, right now.
 
Maybe once per year, don’t have too much trouble with bunkers so rarely spend any time in them practising.
 
In honor of this thread, I spent about 10 minutes in the practice bunker this evening. :cool:(y)
 
My course doesn’t have a practice bunker or a chipping green. My experience is that such facilities are fairly rare in the UK.
 
I've been a regular at practice bunkers for years and still stink at getting out well, probably 50% success.

But those days are over, I'm a Sure Out member now so I'll never practice again and expect at least 90%, thank you Callaway!
 
My course does not offer a sand bunker practice area. Surprisingly my sand game is pretty decent, very rare for me to not get out on the first time though not always as close to my target as I'd like.

The one that gets me is fairway bunkers. A course we play every Memorial day weekend has them on 6 holes and it's always a guessing game it the ball is going to go 40 yards or 200 yards. I struggle with getting the right club as I dont really experience them except for that weekend.
 
For short game once a week. There’s a range about 20 miles away with a fairway bunker stall and make it down there every 6 months or so
 
tahoebum said:
How simple it is depends upon if you want to get up and down or not. The PGA Tour for sand saves last year was 50% and there were only 14 guys on tour that were above 60%.
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To be fair, PGA Tour greens are vastly different from your local muni. I can usually get up and down with no practice at my local course, I highly doubt that I could do the same on any course that hosts a PGA Tour event.
 
If I’m playing at a course with a practice bunker that’s where I prefer to warm up. It always seems that if I hit balls on the range before a round I start tinkering trying to fix what I’m seeing and have a disastrous round. Therefore, I hit some balls out of a bunker to loosen up.
 
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