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How we move in golf reflects what our goals are with the tool in our hands. In a bunker, our goal is to strike the sand with the trailing edge of the club (the bounce side of the club). If we have a lot of shaft lean (which exposes the leading edge or "dig" side of the club, then the only way to get the bounce to work is to have the clubface wide open. Remember, there are three ways to ADD BOUNCE:
- Lower the handle (flatter angle).
- Open the face (point the face more to the right or clockwise)
- Move the handle back (farther from the target than the ball)
Our goal is to have a club that is slightly open, and a shaft that is close to vertical. This exposes plenty of bounce. To accomplish this, the force in our our swing will be dominated by the arms and torso, but have little contribution from the hips. Also, as the left arm tends to pull the handle forward, this shot will be more of a right arm swing. In order to minimize the need for the body, we have to take a big enough arm swing in the backswing to allow gravity to help the right arm create enough speed.
Tags: Bunker, Set Up, Impact, Follow Through, Backswing, Transition, Release, Concept, Intermediate, Beginner
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In this video we're going to go over the technical aspects of hitting a bunker shot.
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So first we're going to cover setup.
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Keep in mind that with a bunker shot, with most shots we're trying to eliminate one miss,
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with our delivery with a full swing we're trying to eliminate a fat shot we're trying
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to hit it solid or thin.
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With a finesse shot around the green, if you're hitting more of a chip or bumping run,
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again you're trying to eliminate fat, if you're hitting more of a pitch you're trying
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to eliminate thin.
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For this bunker shot we're trying to eliminate thin or the blade shot.
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If we're going to air we want to make sure that we take more sand and we hit a little
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behind the ball.
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So everything we're going to do in setup is going to set up for how we're going to want
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to accomplish that and for the sequence of how we're going to use our body during
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the swing.
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Let's just cover setup for this video.
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So essentially in order to make sure that I hit slightly behind the ball, we're going to
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stick with some of the finesse concepts which is basically we're intentionally trying
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to be weak so that we can have a big change cause a small difference in my actual shot.
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But in order to hit a couple inches behind the ball which two inches behind the ball is
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kind of the going rate these days where we want the club to actually enter the sand.
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When you take a swing you're hoping that the club will enter the sand basically at that
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line and take about a dollar bill size divot.
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So the first thing I want you to do is we're going to squat a little bit more and turn
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our feet out kind of like you're walking like a duck.
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That essentially quites down the lower body which we'll get into in the swing mechanics
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as to why that's such a good thing for bunker shots.
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So we're squatting and we're coming down to expose some more of the bounce.
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You're going to lean slightly left again to stabilize the lower body and then you want
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to make sure that your hands are more kind of in the center of your body.
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And let me backtrack when I say we're going to lean slightly left.
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It's not going to be a full upper body lean to the left the way it is with the finesse
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shot.
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It's a little bit more of just a lower body slide.
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One of the 10 densies that I or one of the trends that I tend to see is that good drivers
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of the golf ball tend to be good wedge players.
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Guys that come over to top 10 to struggle a little bit in the bunkers.
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So I like to think that people who already know how to do a shallow angle of attack which
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is good for driver and long clubs end up being good bunker players.
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All right.
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It's enough of a little sidebar.
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So we're going to have feet a little wider than shoulder width.
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We want to kind of dig in a little bit.
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You'll notice I've kind of buried myself in the sand dug in.
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You'll learn about that in the evaluating the sand video.
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I'm going to take more or less my normal grip and then I'm going to take my right hand
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off and place it in a very weak position or position where the V is pointing more or less
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at my chin or even towards my left ear depending on what shot I'm trying to hit.
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That again helps expose the bounce of the club because the worst thing we can do is have
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dig coming in.
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We'll get into that in the swing mechanics video.
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So squat to a certain now, weak grip and then it's going to be very much an armsy style
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swing with not a lot of a big loader dynamic body movement to create the speed.
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It's mostly going to be my arms working kind of in a very soft fashion which we'll get
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into in the swing mechanics video.
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The simple setups are draw a line roughly in the middle of your stance when you're first
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doing this.
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Get your feet turned out squat position.
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Take a few swings just to see where compared to this line your club is entering the
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sand.
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Once you've done four or five or so you've got a good idea of where your swing right now is
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going to want to strike the sand and you can move the ball position about two inches
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forward of that.
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So those are the simple techniques we'll get into it a little bit more when we go into
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the swing video.
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But really quick checklists, squat, weak grip, smack the sand.
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So we're going that for your setup video and we'll get into the mechanics very shortly.
