Playing Tip  

The greenside bunker shot

Great greenside bunker shots begin with a good set up. The address position begins with opening your body and stance 20 to 40 degrees open or to the left of your target line. Next, dig your feet into the sand by wiggling them into the sand so that you’re one to two inches into the sand, while doing this, you should be feeling the texture and firmness of the sand with your feet to determine how deep you are able to bounce your club through the sand. Next lay your clubface in a slightly open position (pointing to the right) then take your grip, avoid taking your grip first and then laying the face open by turning your hands under to the right as they will just want to return to their natural position while swinging. Then position the shaft so your hands are directly over the clubhead and not in front of the clubhead. Together with an open clubface this exposes the bounce or trailing edge of the bottom of a sand wedge which will keep the club from digging down too much into the sand and thus slowing it down.

In swinging, you want to try to skim a layer of sand from beneath the ball beginning 1 to 4 inches in front of the ball and then continuing three to five inches beyond the ball. This is a shot where we do not contact the ball first with the club, so together the club and the sand will lift the ball out of the bunker. A good bunker shot has the muffled sound of only the club going through the sand, when you hear a ball and club click sound at contact you havent gotten into the sand early enough. Finally, keep the club moving through the sand and not ever decelerating by making a long swing and finishing in a full follow thru position. You can vary shot distance by how much you open the clubface, varying your swing speed, and also using gap and pitching wedges to go further distances.

The two biggest mistakes made by most beginners in a bunker are not opening the clubface enough at set up and then not finishing into the full follow thru position. Once learned, however, greenside bunker shots are not so difficult and sometimes actually easier than being in heavy greenside rough.

Good luck out of the sand.

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