While there are no shortcuts in this game, there are ways to practice and play smarter. With it, you can let the club enter the sand an inch or two behind the ball and exit an inch or two after it and the ball just jumps out with the sliver of sand you carved out with your wedge. Players who struggle with a line drive bunker shot took the club back too shallow. Instead of trying to address the mechanical or technical aspects of your swing/stroke/game, commit to a mental change. Lateral movement or weight transfer is an important move during the golf swing thats often applied improperly or excessively, even by the best players in the world. A former two-time intern, he also helps keep GOLF.com humming outside the news-breaking stories and service content provided by our reporters and writers, and works with the tech team in the development of new products and innovative ways to deliver an engaging site to our audience. If you want high and spinny, you have to open the face and hit close to the ball. If you aim to get the ball out, finish up high, and go. How to Hit a Bunker Shot with Wet Sand (Compact Sand) - Golf Distillery Typically, you want a sand wedge (56 degrees) or higher. The previous points only dealt with the specific challenges of a short bunker shot. My 55* sand wedge has a medium bounce that works well out of fluffy sand. Either experiment with square face or lower hands. Try to hit that spot and let the club glide underneath the ball through the sand. If the clubface is open like you would do for a blast shot, the bottom of the club . 30 Days with GolfForever: You Wont Believe the Results! Its possible to hit good shots in both situations, but youll need to use the right method to make that happen. Would be problematic to pop this out high though. In this episode of How to Hit Every Shot, instructor Erika Larkin takes us through the basics of blasting it from the bunker. But, if your ball position is too far back, get it further forward. When you're trying to escape the bunker, the key is to focus on throwing sand. You dont need to transfer quite as much of your weight back to your right side on this shot. You want to take less sand than usual when it's wet. In order to execute a wise game plan that reflects sound course-management reasoning, players often utilize a right-to-left ball flight on the 16th tee. Hank Haney: How To Hit The Basic Sand Shot | Instruction | Golf Digest If youre one of those players who has a wildly inconsistent divot pattern (sometimes deep, other times shallow, sometimes no divot, others have proper width, others have little width), youre going to produce proportionately inconsistent results. How to Hit the Draw Shot: Golfs Secret Weapon for Mastering Difficult Courses. How to Hit High and Low Golf Shots After becoming a Class A PGA Professional, teaching professional, and golf membership director, she decided a career in golf writing was the perfect fit. Lately, theres been a lot of buzz surrounding the use of distinctively unique swing rehearsals. Opening the clubface in this scenario would increase bounce and cause you to top or knife your shot over the green, so you have to keep it square. I always move a ball out of a footprint, rake it and try and drop it as I think it landed in the bunker. At the same time, you should feel your backside/thigh muscles being engaged. Would love your thoughts, please comment. and note the landing and roll out distance and write it down. As those bunkers dry out, the conditions will gradually soften. If the sand is soft, your club is almost certainly going to sink down into that sand as you swing through the ball. If your toes are pointed in too much, as if youre pigeon-toed, allow yourself more freedom by opening it up. Dig your feet in and make an extra wide stance. If a course has the staff and equipment needed to regularly care for the bunkers, the sand will usually be soft. The essence of a good bunker shot is the clubface sliding under the ball, creating a cushion of sand to send it high into the air so it can . If the sand is packed, you want a more shut clubface, whereas if its fine sand, you want to open it up more. If your kids have a sandbox, that could be an option! Now that youve evaluated what the condition of the sand is, you need to set the clubface. The setup for bunker shots includes how your feet are aimed and how the clubface is aimed. You should also dig your feet into the sand to make sure your base is set. Assuming you have a good bunker technique to begin with, there is not a lot of adjustment for hard packed / think sand. Line your club up slightly right of the target with an open face. MEMBER REVIEWS: Cleveland Frontline Elite Putters! Swing only slightly harder than a chip/pitch of the same distance. Besides lessening the bounce and almost squaring up the clubface I still swing as if hitting out of softer sand. I hope to never need to use that one, but you never know. With the driver, were supposed to set up to the golf ball so that its positioned slightly inside our lead heel. Lets talk about hitting draws. Finau did his best work on the front nine. Going there, if you are not used to it, may seem very daunting in the beginning. A bunker shot can be very much like a flop shot. 4. At the same time, Tiger wants to feel his front/back leg muscles in both the upper/lower thigh area doing whats required in an effort to use exactly what were supposed to. As weve discussed, its best to strike a balance between the use of bigger muscles and the use of ones arms/hands in a manner thats effective for you. If the bunker is firm on top and compact beneath, square up the leading edge of your wedge (do not open up the face). If theyre level with one another in relation to the ground, you may struggle hitting draws. If the clubface is open like you would normally do for an explosion shot, the bottom of the club will bounce up and hit the middle of the ball giving you a skulled shot over the green. I have a drone shot of me casting a beast fleye and it getting eaten, but not eaten enough. Watch 'The Golf Fix' Mondays at 7PM ET. Depending on your course and previous shot, your lie could be on an incline or a decline. Embed from Getty Imageswindow.gie=window.gie||function(c){(gie.q=gie.q||[]).push(c)};gie(function(){gie.widgets.load({id:'SXrXsUnLS2Bd_fkY7wkv0g',sig:'RhOO0SFXizoxEkh3-6II-0Prmj41tcPnIiQhy4fST4A=',w:'509px',h:'339px',items:'1398778760',caption: true ,tld:'com',is360: false })}); Focus solely on your intent and not what you hope doesnt happen as you watch your ball fly through the air. Mickelson Sounds Off on Twitter at the OWGR, Tony Finau Spotted Caddying for Sons Hours After Winning PGA Tours Mexico Open, Talor Gooch Performs A LIV Golf First With Back-to-Back Victories, Brooks Koepka Gets 200-Club-Length Relief in Strange Ruling at LIV Golf Singapore, Jon Rahm & Scottie Scheffler Skipping The Wells Fargo Championship. Mizuno MP-20 4-9 PX 6.5 (Testing MP223 4 and 5), Mizuno T20 Raw 47-07 PX 6.5 So far, Paddy has dished out quality lessons on chipping, breaking 80, and incorporating your hands, arms and wrist into your swing (although that one went haywire). Brands Explained. It's a really good all-round club and will work well from the bunker. Feel your core stretching or working as you get your upper body more over the ball. HANK HANEY, a Golf Digest Teaching Professional, runs the Hank Haney International Junior Golf Academy in Hilton Head. For a typical sand shot where the sand is dry and a bit fluffy, the bounce helps the club slide under the ball at a predictable depth in the sand and come out the other side. A basic chip shot will work very well from the wet and compressed sand, due to two things. Driver: Titleist 910 D2 9.75* Diamana Kai'li 65 Mid S Learn where to impact the sand to hit different golf shots.Like my shirt? It helps the club glide through or on top of whatever you're hitting from (turf, sand, hardpan, a mat or whatever). In order to strike the ball solidly without losing your balance, youll notice how fast youll need to get your arms and hands down and thru the golf ball. Finishing high is not just about looking good for the photographers; it has everything to do with acceleration through the ball. Sliding under the ball. The shot may feel a bit thin, but you will end up getting the distance you need to advance the ball forward. In many ways, that process for one great player is very different than another great players process. We have hard sand, especially after a rain. REVIEW: Can These Socks Improve Your Golf Game? In the absence of that maintenance, however, the bunkers will get hard and playing shots will get tricky. While Rahm and Koepka both play the game under very different circumstances in comparison to the typical amateur, all golfers have goals. With an open stance, and an open club face, and a swing that goes under the ball, youll be ready to hit some excellent greenside bunker shots. Many golfers exaggerate the move in the sand trap, and they almost try to lift the ball out with the club. Public courses in Tucson are the same way. . I sculled them all. To be clear draws fly from right to left for righties and left to right for lefties. Barely faster than chipping speed. Sometimes, thats just the nature of this crazy game. Interestingly, whether youre playing out of fluffy or firm sand, Harrington suggests always making contact at the same point behind the ball, instead of moving the contact point forward or backward. Get your weight into your trail foot during the backswing, back into your lead foot on the downswing before striking the ball and ultimately finishing with the clubs shaft wrapped around your shoulders as part of a proper, balanced finish. By If it came in hot, drop it from shoulder height. Hole everything out and approach every shot the same way. For more great instruction like this, watch Best Lessons Ever Wednesdays at 7 p.m. You want the leading edge to dig a bit. Most golfers would agree that hard bunkers make for more difficult shots, but they arent impossible. As Harrington demonstrates in the video, the secret to making short work of fluffy lies is to open the clubface and expose the bounce as much as you like, then swing hard to help it get up in the air. New Adams Idea driver, fairway wood, hybrid + Adams C-Groove putters. You can still hit behind the ball like a normal bunker shot and the square face will allow the wedge to dig into the hard sand and pop it out on a nice cushion. Here are 7 at-home drills from Ryder Cup captain Padraig Harrington, Padraig Harringtons latest backyard lesson backfired in hilarious fashion, Padraig Harrington reveals the 3 surprising swing keys you need to break 80, Try this drill from Padraig Harrington for more consistent chipping, 7 golf equipment tips that can help beginners improve right now, How to develop the perfect pre-shot routine, according to two of golfs best instructors, Perfect your impact position with this clever swing drill, This pro is chipping one-handed in competition. I have a terrible time in the sand. For greenside bunkers that are more than 30 yards to the pin, there are times that it may make sense to use your gap or approach wedge. We Played Golf at Sea Island for the First Time! Butch Harmon: How to hit high, soft bunker shots every time Darin de Lelys Golf on Instagram: "Better Out Of The Bunker!!! Based on Take our word for it; getting good out of a bunker is something that takes a bit of practice initially, but it will be a worthwhile skill long term. Titleist TSi3 10* TPO 1K 60-TX Re member: Use a 56 or 58 sand wedge. The ball will not have enough loft to carry the lip, and as a player, you wont have the control you need to stop the ball on the green. | Sea Island Seaside Course. He can be reached at zephyr_melton@golf.com. In order to guard against his club head lagging too far behind his body (commonly known as getting stuck), Tiger knows he must mitigate the use of his arms/hands rotation. I was using a full swing but my mindset was that I would open the face so much so the ball wouldn't travel too far if I didn't get much sand. Instead of allowing your mind to jump to Oh boy, now Im going to make triple and have to play my next 8 holes in 1 over just to shoot 79, ask yourself one simple question: Where in the fairway should I put this ball in order to attack the flag?. Don't ask me how it comes out so high, but it does. The bounce on a wedge is arced across the sole so you can open up the face and bring more of the bounce into play. In other words, Tigers upper body is too far ahead of his arms/hands and, ultimately, the golf ball at the point of attack. A 2019 rule change allows you to take a two shot penalty and drop the ball out the back of the bunker. When the trouble is across our body at the setup position (left for righties), were often served best by opting for a draw as opposed to a fade/straight ball. Try these adjustments the next time you encounter firm sand: Its important to understand the right techniques for hard and soft sand, but only one thing is really going to elevate your game in this area practice. Finau's sixth career PGA Tour victory was worth $1,386,000. By jumping! "You take your spine, [and] it's not comfortable, but you put it . Approximately speaking, your body is now at a 90-degree angle in relation to the ground. Your previous content has been restored. If you find yourself playing well during the week and struggling during your weekend matches, dont go to the club pro for a swing change. Use this excellent drill: Take your normal setup position with a short iron and then drop your trail foot back excessively (a few feet). When you are hitting out of a bunker, the open face is minimal. To clarify, an important aspect of a draw-biased setup involves positioning your trail shoulder lower in relation to your lead shoulder. Maintenance. Secondly your wedge is equipped with an angle called the bounce. GOLF.com and GOLF Magazine are published by EB GOLF MEDIA LLC, a division of 8AM GOLF. I sure as hell could use the money, but youre best served engaging in positive self-talk. Achieving a more-neutral ball flight involves learning how to produce the mirror image of your preferred miss. How do we do that? But I sort of forgot about that during the tourney. Opening the face and exposing the bounce just skips the club into the ball. Tip #1: Move the ball slightly back towards the center of your stance. Step 6: Use plenty of speed and keep your clubface open. Don't Look Up! When the sand is hard, however, it doesn't really work at all the explosion shot really isn't an option. He also moved to No. I hit it like a bunker shot. Pro Modus 3 Tour 120 shafts. Have you considered your penalty options? True, what others mentioned you cannot be using the same amount of bounce because it will "bounce" off the hard sand and blade into the ball. USE OF AND/OR REGISTRATION ON ANY PORTION OF THIS SITE CONSTITUTES ACCEPTANCE OF OURVISITOR AGREEMENT(UPDATED 1/6/23),PRIVACY AND COOKIES NOTICE(UPDATED 1/4/23) ANDCALIFORNIA PRIVACY NOTICE. We must hit behind the ball in the bunker and launch some sand up into the air. If you want to turn it over more with the big stick, start by checking your ball position. You'll have to adapt to different types of sand. A lot of golfers like to give themselves putts inside five feet, take the timely mulligan, or hit their third shot from their buddys ball after pumping their tee ball OB. ^^^^^ This x 100. A club without any bounce would act like a shovel when it hit the dirt. However, those are the rounds that we learn the most from. The steeper swing in a bunker may feel a little as though you are taking the club back with your hands and arms, more than your core and legs. How to get out of a sand trap with hard sand in it - Golf Habits If you need to get it up and over a lip you can use a butterfly grip to lock the top hand wrist into extension and fire the toe under the ball. With the bounce on your wedge and the grooves on the club face, you will be able to launch the ball out of the bunker when you have a more steep swing. Eastern Long Island Fishing Report- April 27, 2023 Here's why, How a popular green-reading method helped launch this young pro into contention in Mexico, This chipping drill will help you get up-and-down from anywhere, 8 simple ways to banish negativity during your round, Use this hip rotation drill to develop more power through your downswing, Stop topping the ball with these 10 easy fixes, Seeking power and clubhead speed? Make bunker practice a regular part of your routine and you should gradually gain confidence and see improved results. If you dont select the correct club from the bunker, youll have no chance. Opening the face and exposing the bounce just skips the club into the ball. Paste as plain text instead, The normal sand wedges try to dig under the ball too much to throw the sand and ball out of the bunker, with heavy wet sand all you throw out is some heavy wet sand and no ball. The club gets buried, and the ball advances a few feet. Notice how." Golf Tips And Advice! We hope that our comprehensive guide on how to hit a bunker shot has helped you feel a bit more confident in your abilities. All golfers should know how to hit bunker shots, so lets break it down into simple steps. Just like a pitcher throwing from the stretch, they are exploding off their trail foot/side before releasing the ball toward home plate. Which State Has the Most Golf Courses? Amazingly, more than nine times out of ten, mid to high handicappers (15 and up) who seek my guidance each employ the following move during the golf swing: Their chest/upper body is positioned too far ahead of the golf ball in relation to the target.
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