Sand Save
The Sand Save is the statistic of how often you still finish the hole with par or better after a bunker shot.
The Sand Save measures your save percentage out of the sand in percent. Every hole counts on which your ball lay in a greenside bunker and you still played par — or better. The classic calculation: one stroke from the sand onto the Green, one putt into the hole. The Sand Save is thus the bunker variant of the Up and Down and part of the larger scrambling statistic, which summarizes all saves around the green. At professional level good values are above 50 percent, among amateurs often well below.
An example from practice: You play a round with four bunker visits around the green. Twice you hit the ball close to the flag and hole the putt, twice you need two putts on the green. Your Sand Save for this round is 50 percent. What matters is less the putt than the quality of the Bunker Shot itself: Anyone who regularly gets out of the sand to within three to four meters has a realistic par chance on every green. Anyone who plays the ball ten meters past or leaves it lying in the Bunker loses the statistic before the putt.
The most common misconception: The Sand Save says nothing about your putting but almost everything about your technique in the sand. Many golfers train for hours on the putting green and not a single day in the practice bunker — yet the sand contact, the correct opening of the clubface and the tempo decide the percentage. A second fallacy is the fear of the deep bunker: Even from a Pot Bunker the goal is not the miracle but a safe ball onto the green within putting distance. Anyone who accepts that plays their sand saves almost by themselves.
FAQ
How do I calculate my Sand Save?
Count all holes on which your ball lay in a greenside bunker, and of those the ones on which you still played par or better. Divide the saves by the bunker visits and multiply by one hundred — with four bunkers and two saves your Sand Save is 50 percent. Important: Only greenside bunkers count, because it is about the save around the green.
What is a good Sand Save value for an amateur?
Professionals achieve good values above 50 percent; for amateurs anything above 20 to 30 percent is solid. If your percentage stays at zero permanently, the bunker shot is your biggest problem area — not the putting. The value belongs to the scrambling statistic, which summarizes all saves around the green such as the Up and Down.
Why is my Sand Save bad even though I putt well?
Because the Sand Save says almost nothing about your putting but about the quality of your bunker shot. Anyone who plays the ball ten meters past the flag out of the sand has little chance of the one putt even as a strong putter. Train the sand contact and the distance control out of the bunker first — the percentage then follows almost by itself.