Today we’re going to be looking at bunker shots. Now the actual swing needed to hit the average bunker shot is no different than the swing needed to hit a distance wedge shot. The only difference needed to successfully play the average bunker shot is with the setup. You need to change your setup so that instead of hitting the ball first, you hit the sand first.
The first big change in the setup is that the ball should be positioned just inside your left heel. Next you need to align all of your body to the left of your final target.
Finally, you need to open the clubface and grip the club. The clubface should be pointing at the flag or to the right of the flag.
It’s very important that you open the cluface first and then grip the club in a neutral position. When you do this it will feel like a weaker grip because of the open clubface…however, it’s the correct way to open the clubface for a bunker shot.
There are no set rules on how much you open up the clubface because all sand is different. You have to experiment with how much you open up your stance and how open you have the clubface.
Just understand that for the standard bunker shot you should not alter your distance wedge swing at all. The setup is what makes the necessary changes to help you hit great bunker shots.
Having said that, you must make sure that when you swing you do so along the alignment that you’ve setup, which is open. Don’t manipulate your swing to swing towards the target. You MUST swing along your open bodyline.
By doing this the ball will fly to the left of the pin and then on landing spin to the right and roll a little bit.
Now once you’ve mastered the standard bunker shot you then simply need to make your swing either longer or shorter to alter the distance of your bunker shots. You don’t need to try anything fancy, just swing either longer or shorter and the ball will fly the appropriate distance.
Once you’ve mastered hitting chips, pitch, distance wedges and bunker shots the distances you want from perfect lies. then you’re ready to start learning about the differences in lies and green conditions that will help you to choose the right club and shot for the situation you’re faced with.
But understand this…that knowledge would be next to useless if you can’t hit just a standard short game shot the distance you want.
Now here is a rough generalisation as far as the lie is concerned. The worse the lie the more descending blow you need to hit the shot effectively. But by doing a more descending blow it will deloft the golf club you’re using. So if you’re using a sand wedge but the ball is in a bad lie that you need to hit down on, then the ball may come out on a 6 or 7 iron trajectory.
Naturally, this will mean the ball will also run further than normal.
Now when you choose where to land your ball you should always try and land your ball on the green. It’s much, much more predictable than landing your ball on the fringe.
Also, the other main consideration you have to make when playing a shot is the green condition. For example, if you’re playing a golf course with hard and fast greens then obviously the ball is going to run much further than a golf course with slow and wet greens.
So when selecting a shot to hit you need to assess your lie and the green conditions closely. A lot of this comes down to practicing, experimenting and getting experience from different lies.
OK, that’s the basics on what you need to focus on to improve your short game. Next I’m going to outline the essentials needed to become a great putter. So make sure you come back here to read that. 
Tags: bunker shots, bunkers
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