How To Play Bunker Shots
In this video, Dan Grieve, head professional at Woburn Golf Club, explains how to play bunker shots with some simple tips and drills.
Transcript
00:00 (upbeat music)
00:02 - Hi, Dan Grief here, head professional
00:06 at Women's Golf Club.
00:07 And here we're talking about the green side bunker shot
00:09 and the technique in which you need to be able
00:11 to splash that ball out every time.
00:13 So it really all begins with setup.
00:15 So I like to see golfers standing nice and wide.
00:18 Really very important to create a nice wide base
00:20 when you play these shots,
00:21 because the biggest fault I see
00:23 is a golfer moves side to side
00:24 and that creates thin shots and fat shots.
00:26 So let's get really wide like a driver
00:29 and get this left foot turned out around about 45 degrees.
00:32 And what that allows you to do then
00:33 is push your left knee over your foot
00:35 and get this right leg kicking in.
00:37 So you'll find that majority of your weight,
00:39 perhaps up to 80% is forward on this left side.
00:42 Now for this soft sand,
00:43 you can afford to allow your right shoulder
00:45 to drop back a little bit.
00:47 You don't want to get your upper body
00:48 stacking over your left leg too much this way.
00:50 So allow the right shoulder to drop a little bit lower
00:53 and we'll have the ball position just inside the left heel.
00:56 Very important as well to make sure
00:58 that the shaft line mirrors that.
01:01 So we have the shaft line neutral.
01:03 Hands don't go ahead and they don't come back.
01:06 Really, really nice and neutral.
01:08 The face can be slightly open
01:10 because I'm standing further away from the ball,
01:12 lots of knee flex.
01:14 Okay, that allows me to get more into the sand
01:17 and really feel like I'm rooted and strong down
01:19 into the sand.
01:20 And then from there,
01:21 it's about making sure that we keep the loft
01:23 and bounce on the club going back
01:25 and then through the same thing,
01:27 making sure the chest turns.
01:29 So I'll just hit one here.
01:30 We see it splashes nicely there.
01:34 Now, one of the things that allowed me
01:35 to play that shot really nicely
01:37 was the fact I kept the loft and bounce on.
01:39 And here's a really simple drill you can do.
01:41 It's put some sand on the club face
01:43 and see if you can keep that sand on
01:44 and see if you can throw it over that shoulder there,
01:46 over your back shoulder.
01:47 And if you do that,
01:48 that means the left wrist is getting cupped
01:50 and the loft and bounce is on.
01:52 And equally, you can put some sand on the club face
01:54 and see if you can throw it over your front shoulder.
01:57 And if you can do that,
01:58 you've got the same thing going on there
02:00 where the club face isn't turning over,
02:02 your holding the loft and bounce on
02:03 and creating that nice splash shot.
02:05 So one of the real skills when you get into a bunker
02:06 is being able to read the lie
02:08 and make relevant adaptions for the lie.
02:10 Now, we don't always get that lovely, soft,
02:12 fluffy sand that we had for the first shot.
02:14 Sometimes the bunkers might have less sand in,
02:17 they might be more compact,
02:19 and we need to slightly change how we approach the shot.
02:22 'Cause if you go in there with this one-dimensional approach
02:25 of just using your standard splash shot,
02:27 you'll have a lie like this, okay?
02:30 And then you will play the shot.
02:31 And there we go, off it goes.
02:34 It's thinned, you'll do well to find your ball.
02:36 So there was nothing wrong with my technique there
02:38 for the standard splash shot.
02:40 What was wrong was my intelligence.
02:42 I wasn't able to read the lie very well
02:43 and I wasn't able to adapt
02:44 how I put the bounce into the sand.
02:47 So when you get a tight lie like this,
02:49 you have to set up slightly differently.
02:51 So we'll keep the stance the same.
02:53 You very much get the weight forward on the left side,
02:55 but the shoulder line will now be more left as well.
02:57 So you get your left shoulder more over your left foot.
03:00 And this is simply gonna steepen your angle of attack.
03:02 It's gonna get you coming in more downward into the sand
03:05 and more with the leading edge
03:06 rather than the trailing edge of the bounce.
03:08 So it's gonna dig down a bit more
03:10 and just, it's a bit of insurance about that,
03:12 that bounce happening and that ball going too far.
03:15 The ball position also,
03:16 I just moved that back a little bit
03:18 and add a little bit more forward lean of the shaft,
03:21 whereas before it was very neutral.
03:23 We're now gonna shift this way a little bit,
03:24 put a bit of that lean in.
03:26 And you'll see the difference in the follow through.
03:28 My follow through for the soft sand,
03:31 you can see it's a full and complete release
03:33 'cause I'm using the trailing edge.
03:35 From this lie here,
03:37 you'll see the difference in the follow through.
03:39 So the ball goes back, the hands go forward
03:41 and the follow through is much shorter and more curtailed.
03:44 And that means my leading edge is going more down
03:47 into the sand with the handle leading.
03:50 And that means I'm not gonna get that semi-thin shot,
03:52 which is such a dangerous shot out of the sand.
03:54 (upbeat music)
03:57 (upbeat music)
03:59 (upbeat music)