Deb Vangellow
- Set up with a slightly open clubface to add loft use the bounce angle of your club. Have the grip and shaft more straight and centered in your stance compared to your regular shots where you would normally be slightly ahead of center. The ball should be positioned slightly left of center.
- Dig your feet in to establish a solid footing with more knee-flex than your regular stance.
- Hit behind the ball to allow the sand to splash the shot on to the green. The sand will get the ball out of the bunker.
- Follow through to a full finish.
The length and speed of the swing for the greenside bunker shot will usually be greater than a shot equal in distance from the grass. This is because you will be moving sand to get the ball out of a greenside bunker. Study the sand with your feet and eyes to get a feel for the effort needed to take the amount of sand necessary to land the ball the desired distance on the green.
Cathy Kim
Fairway Bunker Shots
When hitting out of bunkers, control is key. When you’re hitting out of a fairway bunker, take one club more (assuming you can clear the lip in front of you), grip down on the club half an inch and make a three-quarter sized swing instead of a full swing. If you’re looking for some stability, dig your feet into the sand just enough to cover the outsole of your shoes.
Remember, you don’t have to feel like you’re “going after it” once your feet are dug in. Instead just swing to sweep!
Alison Curdt
Being successful out of the bunker requires repeatability with how much sand you take out. Taking too little sand can result in shots that fly far over the green, resulting in another chip or even another bunker shot! Taking too much sand leaves the ball in the bunker.
For practice, draw a small circle around the golf ball (about the size of a chocolate chip cookie) and practice trying to hit out the same amount of sand each time. You’ll be a bunker master in no time!
Karen Palacios-Jansen
To hit a solid sand shot, you need to splash a cushion of sand out of the bunker that carries the ball to the hole. You need to generate a certain amount of clubhead speed to slide the club through the sand.
If you have low clubhead speed, then the sand will actually act as a barrier and stop the club from moving through the sand. You may leave the ball in the sand. Do that a few times, then you may try to take less sand; hit the ball thin and skull it across the green. Don’t get frustrated, just get stronger.
Doing squats with a medicine ball can help you increase your lower body, core, and forearm strength so that you can maintain your knees flexed throughout the shot and, so you can power the wedge through the sand.
Michelle Holmes
For playing great shots out of fairway bunkers:
1. Club selection: take the club that you know is going to clear the lip, even if you know you are sacrificing distance.
2. Your address position should look like a standard iron shot from the fairway versus a greenside bunker shot.
3. Stand a little taller, play the ball a little more forward in your stance, and don’t be afraid to grip down on the club a little.
4. Remember, hitting it a little thin is OK! This thought will help you keep your height and maintain posture throughout the swing.
Nancy Quarcelino
No need to make bunkers complicated! Keep a square stance, keep a square to open club face, widen your stance, open your target foot, keep your target knee over your target foot, play the ball position forward and now lower your hands (this move squares the clubface to the target)!
Hit this shot using your wrists and scoop the ball right out of the sand! Finish with your back hand palm up and watch the ball fly right out of the bunker!
Pete Kelbel
Use a sand wedge. Set your feet slightly to the left and work them into the sand an inch. Align the shoulders to the target with an open clubface. Weight is slightly on the front side. The ball is slightly forward of the middle.
Make a slow Letter L half swing. Splash the sand 2 inches behind the ball and 1 inch under the ball, pushing off the rear foot at the same time. Rotate your trunk to face the target and finish with the clubface high above the lip of the bunker with your right palm (for right-handers) facing the sky in the follow through.
Christina Ricci
The best advice or playing sand shots is direct from the late and incredible Seve Ballesteros. Get in a low sit like you are sitting on a low stool with your lower body. Maintain this stable seat back and through. You’ll feel like the upper body is doing all the work. That’s good.
The key, once your lower is stable, is fast hands through the sand, ensuring a clean thump.
Erika Larkin
Many golfers setup way too open with their club and body and it creates many contact issues… Don’t over complicate the setup. Stay square, use a proper sand wedge, a slightly forward ball position and follow through!!!
If anything – instead of opening the face, just bend your knees and lower the grip handle closer to the ground. This will increase the loft and expose the “bounce” sole of the club to help you splash it out nice and high.
Nicole Weller
Keep it simple for greenside bunker shots… FLOAT the club behind the ball, DIG those feet into the sand for firm footing and give all that sand a good SPLASH before and after where the ball is lying. I like to imagine a circle around the ball and splash that entire circle out of the bunker, along with the ball! Finish high and smile as you watch your ball and that sand sail out of the bunker and onto the green!
Elena King
First – Get fitted with a good Sand Wedge!! I find that the majority of women I teach do not have the proper equipment. A good sand wedge makes it so much easier to play out of a greenside bunker.
Second – Thump the sand with speed, the average clubhead speed for a greenside bunker is 50MPH. This requires a bigger swing and more speed than most use because they are fearful of blading the ball over the green. Sand first… then ball!
Susan Vail
If you want to be super savvy out of the sand – try my 3 power plays!
Play #1 – Address the ball one inch behind the ball and never hear the click of the ball contacting the club. To control shots out of the sand, understand that you never actually make contact with the ball.
Play #2 – Take your full swing. A bunker shot requires moving lots of sand, and it’s this movement of sand that moves the ball. Your ball is being lifted onto the green by the sand so you have to commit to taking a full swing…..as long as you don’t hear the ball at all, you will not hit it too far.
Play #3 – Understand that your club is your sand “tool”. An open face will slide through the sand while a square or closed face will dig. When there is wet sand or very little sand, for example, an open face will most likely glide and end up hitting the ball. Try using a square face to dig whatever sand you can, resulting in the sand moving the ball.
Good Luck with your Power Play from the Sand!
Kathy Hart Wood
To hit more consistent bunker shots, you want to control the amount of sand displaced with each swing. Practice always entering the sand in a similar spot relative to the ball.
When you are practicing, draw a line in the sand from the ball to between your feet. First, take swings without a ball and splash the sand out of the bunker. Notice where the club enters the sand relative to the line. Try the same exercise with a ball. Focus on taking a 3/4 length swing and finishing on your lead foot in balance.
Stephanie Molloy
Bunker shots are funny because these are the only shots in golf where we intentionally want to miss the golf ball. For greenside bunkers, the best set up is an open stance and an open clubface.
Think of your face open at 2 o’clock and your stance at 10 o’clock. Set your grip only after you’ve set your stance and your clubface. Then, picture taking a dollar bill’s worth of sand behind the golfball!
Finish your swing as if you’re finishing above the pin to help eliminate any dreaded deceleration.
Anne Rollo
3 steps to easy greenside bunkers.
- Aim to hit the sand 2 inches before the ball
- Take a fairly full swing (at least 3/4 length)
- Commit fully to the shot (give it some power) and follow through
Find a practice bunker somewhere and spend some time on the above steps and your bunkers will improve markedly
Nathalie Sheehan
Fairway Bunkers
When playing from a fairway bunker, you need to check that you have the correct club for the given situation. As long as you have room do these four things in order to hit great fairway bunker shots:
- Grip down.
- Lean your weight forward.
- Put the ball slightly forward in your stance.
- Keep your lower body quiet throughout the swing.
Sara Stephens
The setup elements to give yourself the best chance to hit a high, soft bunker shot include putting the ball forward in your stance, opening the club face (aim it right of the target. The more open, the higher it will go), and aim your body left of the target (also open).
Dig your feet into the sand to make sure they are stable. When you make a swing, focus on a point approximately an inch behind the ball and try to swing that open clubface into the sand at that spot. You should get a nice “splash” sound when the club face hits the sand and follow through to see that ball pop out of the sand high & soft near the flagstick.
Feature Photo of Brooke Henderson at the LPGA KEB Hana Bank Championship by Ben Harpring
