Bunker Shot Golf Tips

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

Transcript

00:00Hi my name is Nick Drain. I'm a PGA professional and a master fitting

00:08specialist here at the Titleist Performance Center at Woban. In this

00:11video we're going to talk about the greenside bunker shot. The greenside

00:14bunker shot, typically we're going to use our most lofty club in our bag, our

00:18sand iron, anywhere from 56, 58 or 60 degrees and loft. It's the only shot in

00:23golf we're actually not trying to hit the golf ball. We're actually going to

00:25hit the sand behind the ball. I'm going to demonstrate to you ways that we can do

00:30that. A lot of common mistakes that I see golfers make in the bunker is that again

00:35they are trying to help the ball out of the bunker through an incorrect setup

00:38which doesn't allow them the best opportunity to get the ball out of the

00:42sand. Quite often I see golfers trying to move back on the golf ball, so too much

00:48weight on their back foot trying to lift it. As I mentioned earlier we're actually

00:52going to hit the sand not the ball. That's what's going to propel the ball

00:55into the air onto the green. Here's an example of how I see a lot of golfers

01:00make a few mistakes in the bunker. They don't shuffle their feet into the sand, the

01:05ball is too middle of the stance and with regards to the grip they take their

01:10grip and then they open the clubface which in theory isn't actually doing

01:15anything and then they try and lift the ball out of the bunker. You can see there I

01:23didn't actually contact the sand behind the ball and lift it out. Too much golf

01:28ball and it's gone way too far. A couple of key things in your setup you need to

01:33pay particular attention to to allow you to be successful out of the bunker.

01:36Firstly let's talk about the stance width. So a nice wide base, shuffle the feet

01:42into the sand that's going to lower you into the ground. One of the key things, so

01:48I've already got a very lofty golf club in my hand. What I'm going to do is I'm going to

01:51open the clubface slightly and then take my grip. The leading edge of the

01:58golf club is going to point towards my left toe. One thing you'll see in my

02:03setup is that my left foot is turned out slightly. That's going to allow me to put

02:07a little bit more weight on my left side, maybe 60-40 favouring the left and make it

02:13easier as I turn through. My ball position, as I mentioned earlier, this is the shot

02:19where I'm going to hit the sand, not the golf ball. So in theory I'm moving the

02:23ball a couple of inches ahead of where I would ideally have the ball in my stance

02:28if I was playing off the grass and I'm going to draw a nice line about a club

02:32head width inside my left heel as a reference. I'm now going to focus on

02:37hitting that line in the sand, not the golf ball itself. My swing itself I'm going to

02:43make a three-quarter backslink and then make sure that I have all my weight

02:47finishing towards the target and hopefully it'll come out like that.

03:13I'll see you next time.