Tyler Ferrell is the only person in the world named to Golf Digest's list of Best Young Teachers in
America AND its list of Best Golf Fitness Professionals in America.
Meet your new instructor.
Specialty Shots
Subscribe now to watch the full video.
This is a great drill from short game guru James Sieckmann and it is helpful for golfers who have a tendency to get the hand-path out to the right, or too in-to-out, on their bunker shots. Players who exhibit this pattern will typically struggle to use the bounce properly and have an upper body shift away from the target; these factors can lead to heavier contact and a low trajectory. To use the bounce properly and hit higher, softer bunker shots, we have to create a more leftward path. By simply rehearsing a frisbee throw under the lead armpit, we can quickly feel the proper hand path and release pattern (palm staying open) before applying it to a full shot. Note, as this drill combines both of these patterns, it can be useful for amateur and skilled players alike.
Playlists: Specialty Shots
Tags: Bunker, Drill, Intermediate
00:00:00,000 --> 00:00:05,000
This bunker drill is through under your left or lead armpit.
00:00:05,000 --> 00:00:09,000
So this is a drill that I got from James Seekman that works pretty well for golfers
00:00:09,000 --> 00:00:16,000
who have a tendency to get the handpath on the way through going too much out to the
00:00:16,000 --> 00:00:17,000
right or into out.
00:00:17,000 --> 00:00:22,000
That typically takes away bounce and causes the body.
00:00:22,000 --> 00:00:26,000
When arms are extended forward like that it causes the body to want to hang back or move
00:00:26,000 --> 00:00:34,000
backward so it tends to cause kind of like this where at the very least I catch them with
00:00:34,000 --> 00:00:37,000
not a lot of bounce and I hit them really low.
00:00:37,000 --> 00:00:43,000
So in order to get a little bit more leftward path and keep the bounce open we're going
00:00:43,000 --> 00:00:50,000
to imagine that we are going to throw a frisbee or throw a ball under our left armpit.
00:00:50,000 --> 00:00:56,000
So almost similar to something we've done with the driver I'm going to get down towards
00:00:56,000 --> 00:01:03,000
impact so right arm only feel and then I'm going to feel like I throw that palm underneath
00:01:03,000 --> 00:01:05,000
my left armpit up towards the sky.
00:01:05,000 --> 00:01:10,000
So it's kind of having a motion going more like this where the thumb is pointing away
00:01:10,000 --> 00:01:15,000
or going into older deviation but there's not a lot of rotation and extension like we might
00:01:15,000 --> 00:01:17,000
do in the full swing.
00:01:17,000 --> 00:01:24,000
So now if I keep that arm out has a feeling kind of like that and you can hear how well
00:01:24,000 --> 00:01:26,000
it hits the sand.
00:01:26,000 --> 00:01:30,000
It's hard to do this single arm but you're welcome to give it a try so if I hold this
00:01:30,000 --> 00:01:36,000
out or even put it on a club I can do single arm kind of throwing it over there and
00:01:36,000 --> 00:01:41,000
then if I put my left arm on you'll feel that if you're used to the club going out
00:01:41,000 --> 00:01:47,000
to the right you'll feel that your arm is very bent and almost along your side instead
00:01:47,000 --> 00:01:51,000
of if it goes out to the right you'll tend to keep both of those arms straight because
00:01:51,000 --> 00:01:57,000
the club's going to pass the hands down at the bottom of the shot it's much more common
00:01:57,000 --> 00:02:01,000
for this arm to bend pretty quickly or chicken wing on the way through and finish over
00:02:01,000 --> 00:02:07,000
here kind of in your holster as opposed to out to the right like we might do in the
00:02:07,000 --> 00:02:09,000
full swing.
00:02:09,000 --> 00:02:16,000
So once I have this feeling of the the hand going more under and more around I can apply
00:02:16,000 --> 00:02:22,000
that feeling into my full swing now or sorry my full bunkers shot.
00:02:22,000 --> 00:02:26,000
One thing that I've noticed is that some golfers when they start trying to do this in order
00:02:26,000 --> 00:02:31,000
to keep the palm up you'll see that they start leaning back you want to make sure that
00:02:31,000 --> 00:02:36,000
you stay on top of it with your upper body and that you don't get tilting backward because
00:02:36,000 --> 00:02:40,000
that's going to make it really hard to get the bottom of your swing out in front of the
00:02:40,000 --> 00:02:42,000
golf ball.
00:02:42,000 --> 00:02:54,000
So now working around and under getting on top kind of like that that's one way to help
00:02:54,000 --> 00:02:59,000
control the the splash and the depth of your bunker shot if you're a good player or
00:02:59,000 --> 00:03:03,000
to control solid contact and not getting too shallow if you really struggle with
00:03:03,000 --> 00:03:04,000
bunker shots.
00:03:04,000 --> 00:03:09,000
So it's a great drill for both good players as well as poor skill bunker players because
00:03:09,000 --> 00:03:16,000
it combos the path working more around as well as the face staying open as long as you
00:03:16,000 --> 00:03:19,000
control low point with a little bit more arm sequencing.
00:03:19,000 --> 00:03:22,000
You're almost guaranteed if you make this movement you're going to get out of the
00:03:22,000 --> 00:03:27,000
bunker shot and it's going to help build your feel of how you become really adept with
00:03:27,000 --> 00:03:28,000
your bunker touch.
