*This section is in reference to a right handed golfer*

Ah, bunker shots, many amateurs golfers dread the prospect of finding themselves in the sand. Now for the most part playing a good shot out of the sand is no hard feat, however what makes these shots so daunting for many players is that when I goes wrong, it can go really wrong. The margins for error out the bunker are so much smaller than that of a pitch or chip shot, as the loose sand can significantly affect the strike on the ball. Also if we execute a poor shot there is a good chance of ending up back in the bunker (possibly back in one of the footprints we just made)… but it’s not all doom and gloom!

In fact tour pros and elite golfers will often target or use bunkers as a potential ‘miss area’. The reason for this is that the lie in a bunker can be more predictable, provided you get a relatively decent lie, which allows the player to create much more spin out of the sand as opposed to say heavy rough, ultimately giving them more control with the shot. Now I know most of us aren’t fortunate enough to play on the pristine courses the pros play week in week out, but it still doesn’t mean finding ourselves in a bunker should send us into panic mode. 

The Bunker Series

This series is going to give some key points for you to focus when practicing and especially when on the course, to make you a more efficient player out of the sand and give you more confidence. We’re going to cover everything from set-up, to being able to hit consistent shots out of different types of sand and controlling yardages. Unfortunately most practice facilities don’t often have extensive short game areas including a well kept bunker and the availability of hitting a variety of shots like those we can potentially face on the course, but if you do have access to decent facilities take advantage of them, the fact of the matter is that bunker play does require a good amount of practice in order for you to become capable of getting out of the sand.

Getting setup to the ball

The basic principles of getting set up to a bunker shot are going to be very similar to what I discuss in the pitching – address lesson, if you skipped that lesson you can check it out here, but I will cover those topics in this lesson too. The reason for using similar principles is that it helps maintain consistency and familiarity in the short game and allows us to produce similar, positive results. In order to execute great consistent shots out of the bunker we need to utilize the characteristics of the club head such as the bounce, loft and grooves, therefore a sound setup is essential in order to get the best performance out of the club itself. Also when practicing bunker shots we have the availability to draw in the sand to give visual references that can help improve and give immediate feedback towards what was done right and what needs improvement. I recommend drawing lines as seen **here**.

The Lower Half

Now with the sand being loose and unstable it is important to establish a strong stable grounding. So getting set up with with feet just wide of shoulder width and aligned square to – if not a little closed of target (Right of target for a right-handed golfer. Left of target for left-handers). This may be contradictive of what you see else where but closing your stance a little allows you to shift and maintain more weight on your left hand side throughout the shot. It also allows us to work more across the ball in swing.  Once the feet are in a good position we want to shuffle the feet which compresses the sand and creates a more stable grounding. This will also allow us to get a feel for the depth of the sand which can help us gauge and predict how the ball is going to come out of the bunker.

Now some bunkers may have more sand than others and shuffling our feet in, will lower the position of the body and consequently the swing arc, so we don’t want to get too carried away burying our feet only 1-2 inches is ample to create a stable grounding and not excessively lower the swing arc. To accommodate for this we will need to grip slightly down the shaft. Ball position should be forward in the stance, between 1 & 2 golf balls inside the front heel. You should find the ball is now ahead of the sternum which will be addressed later in this lesson with the upper body.  Finally we want to have a little more knee bend/squat. Not only does this strengthen and further support our body, it will lower the shaft angle. This in turn will dynamically close the face angle and produce a shallower angle of attack (We will go into a little more depth about the club characteristics in the next section).

The Upper Body

So we have a stable, balanced lower half that can support the upper body. Firstly we want to realign the sternum back over the golf ball, by simply moving the sternum and eye line directly over the ball. This will allow the bottom of the swing arc to pass underneath the ball, and will prevent direct contact with the ball which could result in the ball flying across the green. Moving the sternum will also shift our weight distribution to favor the lead side (about 60-65%), which will aid a steeper angle of attack into the ball on the downswing.