Golf Tips: Fried Egg Lies

This one can be a nightmare.  Your ball has gone in a bunker and when you walk up to it you see the dreaded bad news.  The lie is a fried egg.  A fried egg lie is one which the ball has plugged into the sand and the ball looks like the yoke of a fried egg with the sand around it being the white of the egg.  With a lie like this it is very difficult to control the ball and impossible to get any spin.  Lets cover the technique to get this ball out (priority) and get it on the putting surface (2nd priority). Setup Like a normal bunker shot we are going to set up with a wide and open stance pointing left of the target landing area (for right handed players).  The club face will be opened up and pointing at the intended target. Unlike a normal bunker shot where we are concentrating on hitting just behind the ball we need to forget about the ball.  We are going to aim for the edge of the white part of the egg.  This could be perhaps 1-3 inches behind the ball.  The goal is to enter the sand at that edge with a full swing and blast the entire egg yolk and white onto the green.  We need to throw all that sand which contains the ball out of the bunker. The finish is full and high, which will help lift the sand and subsequently the ball, higher in the air and get it to land as soft as possible. As mentioned, the ball will have no spin which is why we want it to fly high.  Trajectory will soften the landing and hopefully prevent the ball from rolling too far. Try It Find a practice bunker at your home course (or wherever you can) and throw balls into the sand so they plug.  Practice the shot as if you are blasting an entire fried egg out of the sand.  When you run into this situation during a real round of golf, and you will, you'll be ready for it.