In this video, PGA Professional Nick Drane explains the keys to playing the bunker shot
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00:00Hi, my name's Nick Drane.
00:06I'm a PGA professional and a master fitting specialist here at the Titleist Performance
00:10Center at Woburn.
00:11In this video, we're going to talk about the greenside bunker shot.
00:14The greenside bunker shot, typically we're going to use our most lofted club in our bag,
00:18our Sand Iron, anywhere from 56, 58, or 60 degrees in loft.
00:22It's the only shot in golf we're actually not trying to hit the golf ball.
00:25We're actually going to hit the sand behind the ball, and I'm going to demonstrate to
00:29you ways that we can do that.
00:31A lot of common mistakes that I see golfers make in the bunker is that, again, they are
00:35trying to help the ball out of the bunker through an incorrect setup, which doesn't
00:39allow them the best opportunity to get the ball out of the sand.
00:43Quite often, I see golfers trying to move back on the golf ball, so too much weight
00:49on their back foot, trying to lift it.
00:51As I mentioned earlier, we're actually going to hit the sand, not the ball.
00:54That's what's going to propel the ball into the air, onto the green.
00:57Here's an example of how I see a lot of golfers make a few mistakes in the bunker.
01:03They don't shuffle their feet into the sand.
01:05The ball is too middle of the stance, and with regards to the grip, they take their
01:10grip and then they open the club face, which in theory isn't actually doing anything, and
01:16then they try and lift the ball out of the bunker.
01:23You can see there, I didn't actually contact the sand behind the ball and lift it out.
01:28Too much golf ball, and it's gone way too far.
01:31A couple of key things in your setup you need to pay particular attention to, to allow you
01:35to be successful out of the bunker.
01:36Firstly, let's talk about the stance width, so a nice wide base.
01:42Shuffle the feet into the sand, that's going to lower you into the ground.
01:47One of the key things, so I've already got a very lofty golf club in my hand.
01:50What I'm going to do is I'm going to open the club face slightly and then take my grip.
01:57The leading edge of the golf club is going to point towards my left toe.
02:02One thing you'll see in my setup is that my left foot is turned out slightly, that's going
02:06to allow me to put a little bit more weight on my left side, maybe 60-40, favouring the
02:11left, and make it easier as I turn through.
02:16My ball position, as I mentioned earlier, this is the shot where we're going to hit
02:19the sand, not the golf ball.
02:21So in theory, I'm moving the ball a couple of inches ahead of where I would ideally have
02:26the ball in my stance if I was playing off the grass, and I'm going to draw a nice line
02:32about a club head width inside my left heel as a reference.
02:36I'm now going to focus on hitting that line in the sand, not the golf ball itself.
02:41My swing itself, I'm going to make a three-quarter backswing and then make sure that I have all
02:47my weight finishing towards the target.
02:56And hopefully, it'll come out like that.