Bunker Basics

 

Finding your ball in a greenside trap fill you with dread? Help is at hand. In the first part of our new instruction series written by ladies for ladies, Lynn McCool, Director of Golf and Head Professional at the wonderful Lough Erne Resort in Northern Ireland, explains why learning to generate more clubhead speed through the sand is the secret to escaping successfully first time, every time.

 

Bunker Basics The Set Up

There are four fundamentals that you must get right in order to address the ball correctly in the bunker…

1. Select your sand wedge and grip down the handle about three inches, this will promote greater control.

 

2. Shuffle your feet down into sand. This will enable you to feel the texture of the sand and get some idea as to its consistency – i.e. deep or shallow, fine or heavy. It also gives your stance a solid base and prevents the feet from shifting as you make your swing, which is easily done on a soft, unstable surface. This stable base will also help lower your centre of gravity closer to the sand, giving you a much greater chance of splashing the ball out on a bed of sand.

 

3. Position the ball between the centre of your stance and left heel. This is a detail you should experiment with until you find the position that matches up with the bottom of your swing arc, thus enabling you to slide the clubface underneath the ball. [With the ball too far back you will be prone to hitting bunker shots ‘heavy’ as the club will still be on its descent; conversely, play the ball too far forward you are likely to thin a lot of these shots as the club is travelling ‘on the up’.

4. Hover the club above the ball. A common mistake many golfers make is to hover the club directly behind the ball just above the sand. This encourages a shallow takeaway and makes it difficult to get the club travelling on the correct steep path in the backswing. By hovering the club three inches directly above the ball you will naturally pick the club up steeper.

Body Alignment & Aim

The ideal set up for a sand shot is to aim the body just a touch left of the flag, perhaps between 10 and 20 degrees, the leading edge of the club pointing at the target. What you don’t want to do is exaggerate this adjustment, so that you end up with your body aiming way to the left of the target (framed red above – a common fault that makes it very difficult to synchronise the movement of your arms and body).

 

Distance Control

If you master the basics and work on your speed drills you will soon discover a renewed confidence in your sand play. The next step is to add finesse and learn to control the landing distance on the green. So let me leave you with a couple of ideas to experiment with, two key factors influence distance control: (1) the length of your swing and (2) the amount of sand you take from beneath the ball. Make a mental note, however, that your swing tempo must remain constant. Even for a shorter bunker shot you must still be aggressive and accelerate through the sand.
 

The simplest method of controlling the distance your bunker shots travel is to alter the length of your backswing. I like to use three different length swings – half, three-quarter and full. These give me the versatility to play every bunker shot, from the pin being placed close to the edge of the bunker all the way the back of the green. Regardless of the length of your backswing you must maintain an even tempo and accelerate through the sand into a full finish.

 

2. Regulate the amount of sand you take
 

A more advanced technique involves regulating the amount of sand that you take. This requires a good deal of practice, and there’s a very effective way of going about it: draw two lines in the sand perpendicular to the direction of your target, as you see above. The first line represents your point of entry; the second indicates where the ball would be positioned. Set up with the club hovered above that first line and work on your technique until you can produce a set of consistent sand divots. The more sand you take before the ball the shorter your shots and the less sand you take before sliding beneath the ball the further your shots will travel. Over time you will develop a significant sense of feel for the depth of sand taken.

 

Try these Speed Drills

1. Tee to target

Replace your golf ball with a tee peg turned upside down and positioned in the middle of your stance. Taking your regular set-up, practice splashing the tee peg out of the bunker. This tiny target really grabs your attention and helps you to focus on hitting a specific point in the sand. Believe it or not, you’ll actually have to be more aggressive to splash a tee peg onto the green than a golf ball, as although it is lighter, it won’t travel as far!

 

2. Sand blast!

Another very simple drill involves no object at all – simply practice splashing the sand out of the bunker and onto the green. Use your new committed swing and really get the clubhead gliding through the sand. Extend your arms towards the target in the throughswing and watch the sand fly up into the air.

3. Splash a coin

Place a coin in the centre of your stance where the ball would be positioned and practice splashing it out onto the green. Because the coin is flat the club will be forced to slide beneath the coin, collecting it on a bed of sand and floating it out onto the green. When you have mastered this action replace the coin with a golf ball and you’ll instantly notice the difference.