How To Hit A Sand Bunker Shot In Golf
What other sport has anything even comparable to the hazards that golfers have to put up with on a hole-to-hole basis? Golfers, unlike other athletes, have to trek through the woods, fish their balls out of lakes, and battle giant pits of sand in order to get their ball to the green.
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Bunkers are particularly frustrating because, unlike water hazards, they must be conquered. When a ball lands in the middle of a lake, the ball is lost forever. The golfer can move on with his life knowing there’s nothing he can do. But when the ball lands in a bunker, fear leaps into the back of the throat.
Strategies when approaching bunker shots vary from bunker to bunker, but one truth remains constant throughout: bunker shots are unnatural. They feel strange, they are unfamiliar (especially if you rarely find yourself in bunkers) and they often call for strategies that are deemed unacceptable on the rest of the course.
In a fairway bunker, one piece of advice seems to be the most prevalent: keep your lower body as still as possible. In a fairway bunker, you’re going for maximum distance, and because of this you want to avoid the sand as much as possible and pick the ball clean out of the trap. Keeping your lower body still will help you accomplish this.
Some simple and basic rules for close-to-the-green bunkers are: keep your club open-faced, take some sand, and know the “explosion” technique and when not to use it.
When playing from the sand, it’s important to realize that the more vertical your club face is the more sand it will dig into and the more resistance there will be. In a bunker, especially one close to the green, you want to more or less point your club face straight up at the sky so that the least amount of club is dragging through the sand.
Also, unlike fairway bunker shots, sometimes it isn’t always best to pick the ball clean out of the sand. If you need more height that distance (like if you’re popping up over a ridge onto the green) you want to take some sand with you. Aiming two inches behind the ball while keeping the club open-faced is a sure way to get under the ball, dig up some sand, and send the ball up and out of the bunker.
The explosion technique is a technique in which the club strikes the sand instead of the ball, and the force propels the ball out of the bunker. While this technique may be the best route for professional golfers, players new to the game may not have as much success here. Instead, a variation of chipping is recommended, as is explained above.
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Lastly, instead of high, reaching backswings, it’s better to bring your club back to a sturdy 45 degree angle when playing from the bunker. This will ensure greater accuracy and control over your shot so that you can solidly place the sand wedge behind the ball and loft it out of the sand.