Easy way to deal with bunker shots

By Kim Jeong-kyoo

Korea Times golf columnist

The bunker shot is the only shot in which you don’t hit the ball first and thus is easy to play. It also has a great margin of error.

However, average handicap golfers have no clear picture of how to handle this. They tend to simply fear it, which makes it more difficult to play it safely.

Basically, for a good bunker shot, you need to aim for the sand a few inches behind the ball and slice a cut of sand out from under it. You need to hit a splash shot out of sand, which carries the ball onto the green. Here are three keys to simple bunker shots.

Think of adjusting your swing for bunker play. You need to adopt a weak grip so the V created between your thumb and forefinger of each hand points toward your chin.

A weak grip encourages the clubface to rotate open through impact, adding loft, which makes it easier for the clubhead to slide through the sand under the ball and thus thrust the sand and ball upward toward the green.

Also crucial is the angle of the clubshaft. Unlike normal iron shots, you need to angle the clubshaft slightly to the right, away from the target, which means that the clubhead is a tad nearer to the target than the handle. That permits less dig, or rather more bounce, allowing the clubhead to continue to skid through the sand.

Set up to the ball with a slightly narrow, open stance and distribute more weight on your left foot. That helps you hit the ball sharply with a steep downward blow, facilitating the digging action of the clubhead.

Play the ball slightly forward of the middle of your stance and choke down on the handle of the club to compensate for digging into the sand with your feet. You have to work your feet into the sand sufficiently for stability, digging more with the insides of the feet.

When hitting from a buried lie, square or slightly close the clubface at address as it reduces the clubhead’s bounce angle, promoting the digging action of the clubhead.

Once you’ve set up correctly, make a normal three-quarter backswing for normal greenside bunker shots. You must create a sufficient arm swing in both directions with a sense of smoothness. You have to keep your arms and hands totally relaxed so they feel like heavy ropes hanging from the shoulders.

Importantly, allow your arm swing to follow the body turn during the swing. That will promote a nearly full finish without your having to think about it.

With an abrupt, short swing that is dominated by hands and arms, you will likely fail to get the ball out of the bunker. As always with other shots, you need to relax your hands and arms.

For a correct distance make a swing that would be required from the fairway to hit the ball twice as far as the length of the bunker shot. However, your primary goal needs to be escaping the bunker. This is especially true with a buried lie, also called a “fried egg.”

If the ball is half buried, you need deeper penetration. Set up to the ball with your sand wedge square or somewhat closed to the left with a plan to make a more upright backswing and hit with a more descending blow. Lean more to the left, with the ball positioned farther back in your stance toward the right foot to increase the downward angle of approach.

If the ball is buried almost fully, you’d better use a pitching wedge or a 9-iron. That allows the leading edge of the clubhead to dig into the sand and underneath the ball more readily with less effort rather than bounce off the sand. You will be left with better chances of getting the clubhead sliding under the buried ball.