In this video, top 50 coach Alex Elliott demonstrates fives easy drills to help you get out of the sand and close to the flag every time.
► Video shot on location at Infinitum Golf Resort, host of the DP World Tour Qualifying School.
► Video shot on location at Infinitum Golf Resort, host of the DP World Tour Qualifying School.
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SportsTranscript
00:00I want to give you the confidence to get out the bunker first time every time so I'm going to share
00:05with you my five top tips to help you master your bunker shots. Now there are five we all learn
00:11differently we all improve differently so make sure you stick around for all five because one
00:16could just be the answer for you. First things first we've got to have good foundations right
00:21so follow these real simple steps. Now I'm going to show you this from the player cam perspective
00:26because I think you can get a real good sense of what I'm showing you here. I want you to open the
00:31club face and then take your hold so your club face is open relative to you but your grip is actually
00:37the normal grip you would take on every single shot. Then take a nice wide stance I like to dig my
00:44feet into the sand as I do this because it can move under your feet a little bit so you can see
00:49there my stance is just wider than my shoulder width apart my ball position is a club head inside my left
00:55heel and the final point and for me probably the most important point here to help get that loft
01:00point into target just sit down and put the weight left you are now ready to hit a bunker shot and let's
01:07use these drills now. So the first drill is hit the line really easy to set up all I've used is my
01:20alignment sticks I've got one directly on where the goal ball is and then a golf ball back of that
01:25I've made an impression to create the two lines just throw your alignment stick out the way so the
01:31essential part of this drill is learning to control the bottom of your arc and having a focus point we
01:37don't actually want to hit the ball in the sand we just want the sand to cushion the ball onto the
01:43green so really nice and simple use the forward line to make sure you've got your correct ball position
01:48from our foundations and then simply just create three practice swings trying to hit the back line
01:54and then move into your shot if you go a bit too far back learn from it and improve it's okay
02:00here you go about to put me to the test here and see if I can do it okay good that one
02:06okay that was a little bit far back just reset myself again and really focus on that back line
02:14and now you're ready to go so learn where your bottom of the arc is and build it into your shot
02:22look at the speed we have got at the bottom
02:25one of my favorites that one
02:29now number two on our list is about you creating speed with the correct release okay I call this
02:39striking the match so I've drawn the sand here effectively a match box I've got a line in the
02:46middle and that middle line is going to be where we're trying to strike so that point before where
02:52the golf ball is where we're trying to hit into the sand now nice and simple we have to understand
02:57that if we're striking a match right and we had a match we'd have speed right where we contacted the
03:02box and off we need the same down the golf ball in order to cushion that ball onto the green so I want
03:09you to do it like this now I am terribly right-handed so I want you to do this one-handed with both hands
03:16we're not going to hit a golf ball to begin with so hit those points get that correct grip with your
03:22face open but your grip normal to you put both hands on to start with if you want and then take your
03:28right hand off what I'm focusing on is creating this hitting the line with speed and the loft
03:36pointing back at me then have a go at it right-handed I'm actually worse with this hand than that hand
03:44and same again the momentum of the club allows me to create speed in this direction not like we would
03:52in a full shot so learn that feeling if you need more than two goes to find out what feels best for you
03:58go for that and then have a go at striking one away trying to emulate the exact same
04:07and you can feel like you're striking that match right at the bottom
04:13the two ball drill quick easy simple let's do it so nice and simple place one golf ball and give
04:20yourself a good lie we're learning to play our bunker shots right in the sand the second one all you're
04:25going to use it to do is create an impression just behind a golf ball behind so press it into the sand
04:33take it out and pop it in your pocket if you're confident enough just to hit one away afterwards
04:38without an impression in there so i'm making all the same address points as before but all i'm looking
04:43at and i i would stress this as well i focus on that dot in the sand not the ball the dot in the sand
04:50quick easy and simple
04:59so so far we've learned to have some speed we've got the correct setup and now we've got the release the
05:05final thing and this drill is great for learning to keep the loft on in the bunker we need loft to get
05:11the club to glide so really nice and simple have a look at this too put your club into the sand and get a
05:18nice healthy chunk of sand on that face the idea here is you're learning to keep that sand on the
05:25club face for as long as possible through that backswing and only throw it off over your shoulder
05:31if you're throwing it off early you're manipulating the face far too much so have a few goes get that
05:37feeling and then just work the same exact feelings into your shot because you've got everything you need
05:44now to help improve your bunker tips
05:49so remember the speed remember the loft remember the setup and let us know down in the comments
05:53what is your favorite drill