Fresh Approach

I have an unhealthy fascination with bunkers – I love the variations in design, I love all the different textures of sand and I love the strategy they dictate when correctly positioned. The origins of this can perhaps be traced to the fact that the course I grew up on had one solitary bunker, on the 2nd hole, and at the end of a day’s play I would sneak out there and hit bunker shots until I couldn’t see the ball anymore.

I remember having a sand-wedge with little bounce and a sharp leading edge and because of this I had to really control the low point of my strike and the angle of attack; looking back, as a pretty decent bunker player today, it was probably better training than I then realised. With the equipment available today, the facility to grind and shape the sole of the sand-wedge to suit different types of sand, becoming a good bunker player becomes a matter of having the right concepts and some time practising them.

1) What you see here in this sequence is a really easy way to picture the plane of the shaft back and through. Start right here, in a good set-up position, with your feet nicely square to the target line, upper body fractionally open 2) From the address position, simply take your left hand off the grip and extend the arm, palm flat, toward the ball. Try to match the angle of the arm with the shaft angle of the club as I am doing

This article is designed to give you a basic starting point from which most bunker shots can be learned and developed. It revolves around three basic laws I believe are all you need to employ to get started:

1. You don’t need to radically open your stance to bunker shots

2.To become a master bunker player you must feel the shot through the sole of the clubhead

3. Learn a simple one-planed action and evolve from this point