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 Doug Mertz is a golf professional at Coyote Hills Golf Course and Learning Center in Fullerton. To book a lesson, call (714) 325-1471. Tour professionals spend countless hours practicing and experimenting with different techniques for bunker shots. Maybe they’re on to something. Instead of hitting a bucket on the range, put yourself in different bunker situations around your favorite layout and experiment with clubs, distances and lies to ingrain the correct feel from the sand. Once you master bunker basics and proper techniques for each of these five difficult situations, you’ll be able to hit the ball closer to the hole with more consistency and post lower scores.  GREENSIDE BUNKER BASICS • Make sure the ball is forward in your stance and your clubface is open (left). • Set your wrists and splash the sand (middle). • Hit down on the ball and keep your left side dominant throughout the shot so the handle of the club never points behind your hands (right).  LONG BUNKER SHOTSThe situation: Clean lie in a bunker between 20 and 40 yards from the hole. • Take a longer club, like a pitching wedge or 9-iron. • Make sure you have enough loft to clear the lip of the bunker. • With a longer club, you don’t need to generate as much swing speed. • Don’t change your technique: set your wrists (left) and splash the sand (right).  PLUGGED LIEThe situation: Wet or thick sand has caused your ball to bury in the upslope of a greenside bunker. • Take a club with less loft, since hitting off the upslope adds loft. If you’d normally hit a lob wedge from the distance, use a sand wedge instead. • Keep the clubface square — or even a bit closed — to allow the club to dig into the sand and pop the ball up. Keep the ball in the middle of your stance and dig in more than usual with your feet to maintain balance (left). • Lean up the slope and keep your weight on the front side throughout the swing. Don’t lean back, as this robs you of forward momentum. • Slam your left hand into the ball (right). This is a solid image to promote acceleration and consistency.  FRIED EGG LIEThe situation: A high-launched shot has landed in a greenside bunker and the ball has nestled down in a flat lie reminiscent of a sunny-side up egg. • Again, as in the plugged lie shot, keep the clubface square or even slightly closed to allow the club to dig. Keep the ball in the middle of your stance (left). • If you can, use a club with more loft, like a lob wedge instead of a sand wedge, since the square face will decrease the loft. • Focus on swing speed, since the square face adds distance. Make sure to accelerate through the sand, but practice speed to feel distances for each club from this situation (right).  SHORT SIDE OF GREENSIDE BUNKERThe situation: Clean lie in a greenside bunker but with very little room on the green leading to the hole. • Exaggerate the three main setup tenets for this shot: open the clubface as much as possible; position the ball more forward of center than usual; and, stand more open than normal — between 20 and 30 degrees compared to 10 or 20 for a normal greenside bunker shot. Ingrain the swing image of cutting under and across the ball. • Maintain three-quarters of your weight on the front side throughout the swing. This promotes an open face and staying under the ball (pictured). • Instead of swinging hard, focus on taking less sand with a lighter pace. This is an easier way to control distance. • Don’t become married to your lob wedge for this shot — practice with your other wedges to understand the different trajectories and distances.  FAIRWAY BUNKERThe situation: Clean lie in a fairway bunker. • Start with club selection — what club is necessary to hit the ball over the lip of the bunker — then consider what club you need to cover the distance to the flag. • Basic address elements are positioning the ball slightly forward of center and keeping your hands ahead of the ball without delofting the club. • Your right shoulder should hang slightly lower than normal at address (top), and on the follow-through, picture your hands rising higher than normal after impact (bottom). • Let the big muscles in your upper body control the swing. Do not involve your legs too much since they can promote inconsistent contact. |
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