bunkers are ruining golf for me pls help!

[Garthmo]

I think some of the best advice was to get a bunch of balls and hit them out of the sand. You will start to figure out what works and what doesn't Practice Practice. Be Confident

[Chris5573]

I used to struggle in greenside bunkers too, it would turn a par or bogey into a double or triple everytime. I got this tip out of a magazine, and it's helped me more than any coaching or advice from friends.

When you're in the bunker, imagine that the ball is sitting on top of a tee. (The bottom of the tee is not visible because it's below the sand). Now when you swing, don't worry about the ball...just try to "break the tee" with the club head. Do this with an open club face and the ball off your front foot, and the ball should pop out onto the green.

[Lange]

I have had the same problem with bunkers, and advice for it seems to always be different. I find for bunkers that aren't greenside and are a good distance away you play all ball with the club and try and touch the sand as lightly as possible, this gives the ball good distance and the sand doen't affect u to to badly u may have to up a club or two tho to get the distance needed. So basically just up your stance a tinch for it. As for greenside bunkers depending on the distance to the pin, play roughly around an inch behind the ball and have a decently steep swing. Just make sure you don't over bend your knees or you'll find yourself taking way to much sand and the ball will go nowhere. Ive done it many times myself

[Sandwedge74]

thanks for all the advice. I just want to address a few of the posts - and please keep the advice coming. Not to offend anyone here as I am thankful for the tips but looking at this problem from the vantage point of "why did I go in the bunker" is not the the way to go. I am looking to improve a weak part of my game. Actually like the the poster predicted I am only in the bunker once or at most twice per round - but this is NOT because of a poor iron shot usually - but some times the wind appears out of nowhere and takes the ball into a bunker - or a bad bounce or whatever. and sometimes it might be a poorly aligned iron shot but whatever the reason to have a solid game I want to learn how to play a bunker shot. I have a 56 sandwedge with a 14 bounce hoping that this would be a good tool for helping me to learn bunker play - also as funny as this sounds - I have never had any trouble getting out of a fairway bunker - its ONLY greenside bunkers I am troubled with - thanks for the advice and please keep it coming

[bunkerputt]

How much sand do you take? Do you try to hit 2" behind the ball like everyone in the entire world says? Watch the pros. They almost always try to get some spin on the ball when the lie is good. The only way you can do this is with some club-ball contact. They are taking much less sand than you probably think. Can you hit flop shots well? The bunker swing is pretty much the same swing with slightly more weight on the lead foot. The margins for error in terms of solid contact are similar for both shots. If you practice hitting good flop shots, you can use the same swing, taking much less sand, and hit a pro-style bunker shot.

[bunkerputt]

What I mean is, try not to hit 2" behind the ball. Try picking the ball out clean until you start hitting it thin, then back off a little. You will take about as much sand as can fit on a laid-open clubface. This is probably more like hitting 1 cm behind the ball. With much more energy transferred to the ball, you will be able to take a much more buttery smooth swing and get the ball out effortlessly. This means a shorter swing will work, and we all know shorter swings are much less prone to error. I personally think the "hit 2 inches behind the ball" instruction given by most pros is complete crap for the simple reason that most amateurs downswings are much, much too steep. This means the amount of sand that will be dug out when the ball hits 2" behind will be tremendous and it will require an incredible amount of effort to blast a ball out with all that mass; Way too much clubhead speed for such a short shot. If my solution doesn't fix your problem, and you still find yourself taking way too much sand and leaving the ball in the bunker, take a critical look at the steepness of your downswing. Shallow downswings are much less prone to error since the width of the acceptable range for bottoming out is much wider. Hope some of this helps. Good luck.

[Sandwedge74]

I definitely think i take too much sand. also - the lower body should remain quiet right??? just use the shoulders with minimal hands /wrist motion??

[CoolBreeze20]

A great tip I picked and have used to my benefit in bunkers, is to imagine the ball sitting on a dollar bill. Now, forget about the ball, and try to swipe that dollar bill out of the sand with your club.

[jamesbei]

Its not great advise but, i just try not to think about it, if you can get out of them on the practice green or when you dont care, you can do it on the course, bunkers are a strong part of my game and i have a descent sand save %. but i just get into the bunker look up and hit, no practice swings. Gets the Job done!

[sonicblue]

1) You absolutely must have the right club. A solid, heavy wedge with bounce. Don't take some lightweight, thin leading edge bargain wedge. It just won't work.

2) Setup is super important. Make sure everything hangs comfortably and that your impact zone will pass through the ball.

3) Your legs: treat your legs like "pistons." Flex up and down, really feel them supporting you, and then FIX THEM IN PLACE. Lifting up or going down after it is death.

4) I take a weak grip and break my wrists pretty quickly on the backswing. I focus on a spot about 1-2" behind the ball, depending on how much carry I need. My swing itself focuses on nothing but a smooth, consistent speed - be it slow or fast - I just try to be smooth. As I come forward, my only thought is, when your hands pass over that spot, RELEASE the wrists downward into the sand, the "THUMP" is your friend.

** In soft sand, it's not hard to get the club under the ball. The bounce angle on the club is so the club does not get buried. When the sand is firm, the opposite is the problem; it's hard to get the club under. Keeping the club at standard/open lie will make the problem worse; bounce will make the club skid and rebound, making it more likely you'll blade it. In firmer/thinner sand, square the club up so it CAN dig in a little. The fact that it's firm sand will prevent you from going too deep. Everything else - setup, swing, tempo, target entry point in the sand, etc.... - is IDENTICAL.

[pat8]

The best thing you could do is go get a lesson from your local pro, then, if the way they teach you works for you, stick to that system and use it for every bunker shot.

A huge part of good sand play is confidence. If you approach every bunker shot thinking you'll get your ball out and on the green ( and you have a decent sand swing) then chances are good you will get it on the green. On the other hand, if you have negative thoughts in your head, you have almost no chance of hitting it well.

[xamilo]

This might sound weird for some people, but I used to have problems with bunkers until I got a lob wedge and started hitting balls out with it. FOr some reason, the SW didn't seem to give me enough height and I always hit the front tall wall of the bunker and had the ball roll back to my feet. With a LW it has been much much easier for me, so you might want to try it...

Cheers

[bunkerputt]

I definitely think i take too much sand. also - the lower body should remain quiet right??? just use the shoulders with minimal hands /wrist motion??

I would say probably the exact opposite of what you just said. The lower body should move on just about every shot in golf except short putts. When you hear "keep the lower body quiet", think of it as meaning "arriving at impact with hips open but feet fairly flat". It's OK to lift your rear foot if it is the result of your hip turn. Otherwise, keep your legs inactive, but your hips active. You also definitely need a lot of wrist hinge in a bunker shot to generate enough speed to keep your tempo smooth. This combination of wrist hinge and weight forward will tend to make your swing relatively steep. So it's important that you don't hit too far behind the ball or you'll take way too much sand. Check out this video of Luke Donald hitting some shots. A couple of them are out of the bunker.

Notice how his hips are slightly open allowing him to rotate them through impact. Also notice how he keeps his feet flat through the shot and even after it. Pay attention, too, to how easily he hits it and how softly the ball comes out. This only happens when you take the right amount of sand. One important note regarding how much sand you take: If you take a lot of sand, the ball will come out in the direction of the swing path (the direction the sand flies out). If you take no sand, the ball will come out in the direction the clubface is pointing. This can cause confusion because a lot of the instruction you hear will seem to give contradictory info about how the ball will come out. They are either assuming a lot of sand, or little sand, or some ratio of the two. Once you figure out how much sand you are going to take, then you can determine how far to the left you should aim. Ignore targets when you are figuring this part out, since they tend to confuse the issue unnecessarily. Regarding the relation of the hips/shoulders and their openness to the target... Whenever you open your stance on any shot in golf, you should keep your hips and shoulders stacked over each other. At the most, only open your hips very slightly relative to the shoulders. The reasons for this are really pretty simple. By opening your hips and not your shoulders, you are creating coil, or torque, which can often be unnecessary in short game shots. Also, and probably more importantly, your hips will tend to dictate the path that the shoulders travel. If your hips are open and your shoulders are not, you will tend to cut across the ball. In bunker shots, you can either aim your entire body square to the target, or your entire body left of the target, but you shouldn't aim your hips left and your shoulders square.

[MrSandman]

Bunkers are so easy to get out of, no excuse for not getting out in one shot, on the green, 90% of the time.

The ability to get up and down from a bunker opposed to a simple chip is not as great. But you should be able to give yourself a reasonable two putt from a greenside bunker.

Honestly, the best technique for bunker play:
- open the stance/clubface
- hit behind the ball
- practice
- practice
- practice

If you already know how to hit soft pitch shots, and you go and spend three hours a day hitting sand shots for a week, you will acquire the feel necessary to make bunkers a very manageable task. If you have trouble with bunkers, chances are you never actually learned how to hit out of one, so just go hit the practice area for a while. Ben Hogan - "The answer is in the dirt." No quick tip or band aide is going to magically give you the touch that you simply need to acquire yourself through practice.

[OrlandoGolfBlogger]

Based on the sand you discribed here is my recommendations:

This is some great advice, not that I'm any SME, but makes the most sense.

I dunno if it's feasible, but man, golf is just as much a mental game as it is a physical game, I recommend next time you get in the bunker, walk up to the bunker, point at the sand, and say "%$&* YOU Sand, your not screwing up my round," kick some sand around to show you mean business, and then hole out on your next shot! I can't really say if it'll work for you but right now, your biggest issue is confidience when it comes to getting out of the sand. You've been told every piece of advice available on how to get out of the sand, so you know what you gotta do, just get over that mental block.

[MrSandman]

I recommend next time you get in the bunker, walk up to the bunker, point at the sand, and say "%$&* YOU Sand, your not screwing up my round,"

No way, keep it positive. Walk up to the bunker, point at the green, and say, "simple bunker shot, should be able to land this easily in this part of the green, giving me a reasonable putt that I have a chance to make..."

[Dub]

hi - i shoot in the 80's and have an awful achillies heel to my game. bunkers..i cant get out of them and often blow anywhere from 2 to 6 strokes when I land in one. I have tried every piece of advice I can find and nothing works. I chip well and drive the ball well and have a good iron game but bunkers are ruining my game and starting to drive me to the point of giving up - can anyone here help?? I hear so many things that conflict about set up and swing. keep your weight forward- keep your weight back - have a steeper swing - don't have a steep swing - hit behind the ball - just chip it out - open the face - DONT open the face ....I play bunkers with normal no too hard not too soft sand.. I am loosing my mind - the ball either stays in or blades out into no mans land or even worse another bunker! - anyone have tips or know a good book? I have hogans book and that didn't help - I have only broken 80 once and that was day where I wasn't in a bunker - pls help me get off the beach!!!! also I have no driving range with a bunker to practice in

First of all.....you have the complete capability to make these shots!!!!!

Your 12.5 hcp is evidence of this. Practice on the course...pick bunkered holes that you can practice on a bit without slowing up play. For greenside bunkers: To open or not....for me...is dictated by how far the stick is from the ball. Closeby...yes I open a bit....accross the green...I square it up a bit more. I personally play the ball a tad forward. I take more of descending blow and try to cut the legs off from under the ball. At address I dig in my feet in a bit and get a feel for the depth of the sand. This will give you and idea of how much sand is actually beneath your ball. I maintain the image of the cutting out a dollar bill layed lengthwise beneath the ball. Legs and body are fairly quiet through the shot. Follow through is important. Head still and stay with the shot....don't peak and lift up to see your work or you may hit it too clean.

[Chas]

2) Don't slow down your swing as you are going through the ball. I see this all the time.

You're getting lots of good advice, but I single this one out because it's a very common problem - it used to be a big one for me as well. I used to hate and fear bunker shots, now I rather like them (doesn't mean I always get out just right of course ....)

When you've done all the good things in preparation that people are saying and that you read in all the books, take a couple of final seconds at address (as you gently waggle - don't grip tight now!) to tell yourself to really " commit" to the shot - full backswing, accelerate the clubhead as you displace sand from under the ball, strong follow-through. In this respect (need for commitment), it's much like the flop shot IMO. You just can't do it well with anything but a full attack/follow-through. I just love the flop shot for this reason. Doesn't mean I always pull it off, but when I do, there's a real feeling of accomplishment because I know I haven't bailed out on the shot in the least bit. You will develop much more confidence from success of course, and then you won't get so upset and frustrated when you botch one - which will still happen but that's goff ... Also, if your mind is thinking " commit and accelerate through", it prolly won't be thinking so much, " what if I miss this sucker like I usually do?".