Bunker play: there is enough

Research shows that a tour player over the course of a full season will make only 50 percent of his putts from 7 feet. You don't see a lot of putts going in until you arrive at the 3-foot range, where the pros make about 99 percent, and not even the pros reliably get the ball within 3 feet of the hole coming out of the sand.

So even if you're one of the best players in the world, on average you're going to get up-and-down from a greenside bunker about 50 percent of the time. Thus for the average amateur, hitting out of a greenside bunker is a three-stroke event, meaning that you can expect to take three shots: one to get on the green and two more into the hole. The key is not to take more than three strokes.

Golf pro John Bierkan sets up in the first photo below with his weight on the left side and his sternum just behind the ball, where he wants the clubhead to enter the sand (where the arrow is). Notice how open and laid back the clubface is. This sand is wet, and he's using his lob wedge, which has only about 4 degrees of bounce. If he used the 56-degree wedge with the 12 degrees of bounce, the club might skid into the ball, producing a skull shot.

In the second photo, you can see that John's shoulders, feet and hips are pointed quite a bit left of the target. From down the line you can see how he swung along his shoulder line, causing a cut-across divot (indicated by the arrow at his feet).

If he's swinging to the left, why doesn't his ball go to the left? The answer is the key to the bunker shot: Because he does not rotate his forearms, at impact the face of his club looks at the target exactly as it did at address. Thus his clubface is open to the swing path and the ball has a slight left-to-right spin on it after it hits the green.

The takeaway: Three strokes is expected, two is surprising, one is a miracle.