Bunker Shot Golf Tips

In this video, PGA Professional Nick Drane explains the keys to playing the bunker shot

Transcript

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.

01:39A nice wide base, shuffle 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.

02:06That's going to allow me to put a little bit more weight on my left side, maybe 60-40,

02:10favoring the left, 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.