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In this video, we're going to troubleshoot some of the common bunker problems that I typically see.

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And there's really only a couple. So if I were to have the golf ball and good setup position,

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that's more I'm trying to hit the ball, there's really only two problems I could have.

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One would be, I get two shallow and the club is bottoming out, actually wasn't terrible.

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I get two shallow and the club is bottoming out behind the ball kind of like so.

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And the other one would be, I get two steep and I'm actually hitting the golf ball first and taking kind of a normal divot

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while not making contact with the same. First. So you may have seen how I was able to exaggerate those two things.

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The first one, which is I struggle with, I struggle with this shot, which leaves the ball in the bunker,

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or I just pick it and don't hit the sand, I kind of blade it 40 yards over the green.

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Both of those are pretty much a penalty shot. So we got to eliminate those.

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The major things that I see with that are, if I create most of my speed, well, let me put it this way.

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One, if I have the ball position too far back, that'll cause me to want to back up to try to get the club underneath or to help it up.

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And it's this tilting to the side so that my hips are way forward compared to my upper body, which is going to tend to give me that bladeed shot.

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Right? In fact, doing it a couple times, you'll start to feel and do it right hand only so that you don't give yourself kind of negative images with both hands on the club.

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But if you're in your good bunker setup position, what you'll tend to see is if you're struggling with those two shots is in transition, you're either getting too much drop of the upper body backward or too much slide of the lower body like so.

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Either way, I'm getting my spine kind of tilted too far behind the ball, which is very good for the driver, not so good for a bunker shot.

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With a bunker shot, you're going to stay a little bit more stacked on top of the ball, upper body more on top of the hips, which will allow kind of this proper path and angle into the ball.

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Okay? So that would be big problem number one.

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Problem number two, so problem number one, since I said that, that's not very descriptive, right?

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And you guys are critical thinkers here at golf smart. So when I said that, I mean the upper body tilting backward and getting into this axis tilt.

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No good. We want to stay pretty stable. Upper body stays pretty much centered where it starts. If anything, I'd rather have it drift a little bit forward as long as the ball positions far enough forward, you'll be fine.

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The second one is a little trickier, which is where that guy happens, where I make contact with the golf ball before the sand.

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And maybe you saw what I did, maybe you didn't. There's really two ways I typically see us having an issue with this bunker shot.

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The first one is that probably the most common, which is if you are an over the top swinger, I already mentioned they tend to struggle in these bunker shots.

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You're creating most of your speed from turning your upper body like so.

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Well, if I go to the top of a bunker swing and I turn my upper body, you can now see that I have a ton of shaft, my hands get way ahead of the golf ball.

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And so then when the club comes down, I hit the ball before I hit the sand.

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So this player, the right hand only drill, you can actually hold your left hand out and feel that right hand swinging past as opposed to that left side spinning the right side.

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See the difference between the two? If you create a ton of spin with a bunker shot, really the only shot you can hit is the super high flop shot and it takes a special setup in order to accomplish that.

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So the other one that I'll tend to see is if you're creating kind of you're not spinning, but you're creating a ton of downcock lag. This one's a little more rare, but still possible, so I want to address it.

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If you're creating a ton of this lag or float load or risk cock, that will also give you the shot where you may contact with the golf ball first, but you'll tend to make more solid contact than if you're the left side spinner.

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If you're the left side spinner and you're hitting the golf ball first, it's going to tend to be all over the face or closer to the heel toe misses that kind of stuff.

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If you're doing this one, you'll tend to hit it pretty solid. Sorry, this one being the downcock move. If you're doing the downcock move, you'll tend to hit it pretty solid.

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You'll have trouble hitting it high enough and getting the ball to stop. It's generally going to go over the green.

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So right hand only I love focusing on your setup, keeping your upper body centered, all those things.

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I choked up a little too much on that one. Let's get... There we go.

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Right arm swinging past your body, speed at the bottom, all those things will really help turn your bunker game from something you're afraid of, to something you're actually excited to do.