For golfers of all degrees of skill but especially for middle-handicap players

It doesn't happen very often but every now and then you hear reports that this or that professional purposely played his approach shot to a treacherous green into a greenside trap—in order to be certain of getting down in two shots. I mention this not because it is a strategy I would recommend, but it does serve to emphasize how confident most pros feel about trap shots. For the average golfer, on the other hand, this is the shot he fears most of all. He plays it with a wavering mind and trembling hands, he muffs it, and so it remains the shot he fears the most.

When you are exploding from loose sand, you must play a very firm stroke with a purposeful follow-through. Your wedge should enter the sand about an inch behind the ball. It should drive through the sand in a straight furrow some six inches long. Or to put it another way, the club head continues to plow through the sand for five inches or so past the spot where the ball lay. If you stay down over the shot and concentrate on plowing a straight furrow, I can assure you that you will soon be on your way to becoming a confident trap player.

from JOHNNY REVOLTA, pro at the Evanston Golf Club, Skokie, Ill.

TWO PHOTOS

TWO ILLUSTRATIONS

Johnny Revolta shows the furrow technique for playing explosion shot

NEXT WEEK'S GUEST PRO: JOE NOVAK ON THE PIGEON-TOED STANCE