Bunkered!

I'm having a lot of trouble with my bunker play at present. Played on Friday and landed in 2 bunkers on 2 par 3s. the first one the ball landed straight in the bunker and was buried a bit. My first swing was very 'airy fairy' and just managed to plop the ball in the air and to the front of the bunker. My second shot was with a bigger swing and faster. The ball popped up out of the sand about 2 - 3 feet high and went forward about 4 foot just making the green. Luckily my 15 foot putt somehow managed to drop giving me an escape with just a bogey.

The next bunker I landed in the ball rolled in and so was sitting on top of the sand. I had about 25 foot to the pin with about 20 foot of green. Remembering what had happened before, I took a full swing. The club bounced on the damp sand just infront of my ball, and hit it dead cente. The ball flew into the lip of the bunker, ricocheted straight up 10 foot into the air and landed on the front of the green (again). 2 good putts and I escaped with another bogey!

I have watched countless instruction videos about bunker shots but cant seem to find any where to practice. I even thought about building a sand box in my garden to practice over the winter months!

Paul, are you taking too much sand or are you taking the ball before the sand?

Russ

Hi Paul

I read a report in an old golf mag about a bloke who made a sand pit in his garden and he put a golf ball on a string so it wouldnt be flying into next doors greenhouse. It doesent sound a bad idea unless you live in a block of flats. My view is I dont mind greenside bunkers. I line my feet to 11 oclock. open my club to 1 oclock. Then about 80% swing and hit the sand 3 inches before the ball. There is not a lot of distance control but it seems to plop out regularly about 5-8 yds with a bit of roll. You should still have a par putt.

Paul, have you thought of taking up darts?  lol....  Only joking.

You have to get yourself a consistant swing that you can trust.  There is no getting away from this, but you need to PRACTICE!

Find somewhere that has a practice bunker and get in there for an hour.

Have a lesson from your golf pro, then you'll get the basics correct.

When I had my lesson I was shown a method that would get me out of a bunker first time about 95% of the time.

Remember, getting out of a bunker and getting distance out of a bunker are two seperate things!  I can get out of a bunker first time most of the time (give or take bad lies, under the lip, etc).  But getting it out of a bunker and twenty yards so it stops near the pin are something I'm still getting used too.

Russ

Paul, a good method is to draw a line in the sand about 3/4 inch behind the ball and focus on hitting the line rather than the ball, make sure you follow through with your swing.

Clearly you can only do this in a practice round but it gets you used to taking a pinch of sand before the ball.

When I had my bunker lesson my pro told me that if I was on the course alone and there was nobody behind me, then get into a certain bunker on the course and just practice getting the ball out.  The bunker was steep faced and had about 15 yards to the center of the green.

He told me that as soon as somebody came behind me to rake the bunker and carry on playing!

If you can a round in with me I'll show you what he told me.

Russ

The main reason I think people duff bunker shots is they don't commit to the shot then don't follow through, unless you get through the sand, even the wet sand the ball will not come out on the "cushion of sand". I used to duff loads of these shots till I realised that, then it's down to distance control and the use of different clubs out of sand for different distances. 

Practice Paul, practice.

Hylands have a good practice bunker if that is close to you.

Russ