Specialty Shots
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Many golfers that struggle with bunker shots end up creating too much shaft lean through an over-active lower body. While this may be desirable for a normal full-swing, we have to remember that good bunker play is dominated by the arms. Or in other words, we want the clubhead passing the handle at impact, which then allows us to more easily control the bounce of the club. In your next warm-up, try this simple cue with a few sand shots before heading to the first tee and be sure to note any differences in contact and control.
Tags: Bunker, Drill, Intermediate
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This bunker drill is leave the club head in the sand.
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So many golfers who struggle with a bunker play do so because they try to hit it too
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much with their body and a bunker shot is more of an arm shot.
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In order to power it more with your arms or the reason you want to power it more with
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your arms is so that the club will pass the handle down at the bottom.
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If you power it too much with the body, you're going to have too much chaffling and you'll
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take away bounce and because of that narrow angle you'll then start hanging back.
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That combo produces the really bad chunk blade combination.
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So for some golfers who have a really hard time quieting their lower body for this specific
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bunker shot, I'll give them the task of basically take a swing and just feel like you're
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going to throw the club head down into the sand and you're going to leave it there.
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Now when it comes to actually hitting the golf ball, you'll see that even if I try to leave
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it there, the momentum of the club is going to tend to come up, but it's not going to
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have as much leg going into the hitting zone as some of you who really struggle with your
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bunker shots.
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So for this little drill, you're going to try and smack the sand with a pretty aggressive
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right hand, but you're going to make sure that the club is going down and you're going
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to throw the energy down in front of the golf ball just slightly.
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So I'm going to get in my good bunker setup, leaning a little bit left, shoulders pretty
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level, make a narrow backswing, and then I'm going to throw the club head down into the
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sand and I'm going to feel like I'm going to leave it down there, but the momentum is going
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to bring it slightly through.
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If you have really fluffy sand, I have seen that you can do this, I'll try to exaggerate
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here, we'll do the best we can.
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You'll see in this sand, if I actually leave it there, I'm going to have to decelerate
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too much, but if you have really fluffy sand where you can get the club to go very deep
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down into the sand, it is possible to leave it there.
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This also becomes a very useful shot when you have a severe uphill lie, or if you have
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a berry shot on a severe uphill lie, because there you want to get a little bit steeper
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just like so.
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And by throwing that energy down, even on a semi-barried uphill shot, the ball will tend
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to pop out.
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So if you struggle too much with getting shaft lean, body rotation, and you look more like
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this, when you see yourself from a face-all-in-camera, you want to make sure that you get
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more of the energy coming from the hands to do that, simple image is just leaving the club
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in the sand.
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Once you feel comfortable getting the energy going down, then you can naturally let the
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body go with the club and carry momentum into a better follow-through position.