Bunker Play

bunker-playStraying into the sand is no one’s idea of fun but once there the important thing is to know how to get yourself out of the bunker in a way that won’t cost you points. TG Pro Gareth Johnston’s six rules for bunker play made easy will ensure that you know exactly what to do next time your ball strays into the sand.

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Use the bounce and maintain the loft

In todays video we have  a nice simple tip to help you ‘use the bounce and maintain the loft’ in bunker shots, which is what I like to get my clients to do; try and control the handle height. The key benefits in a sand-wedge or a lob-wedge when you’re playing these type of shots is that bounce angle and the loft on the face.

So, if you open up the blade, what you are actually going to do is increase the bounce angle on the bottom anyway. What that does when opening the blade is it pops a little bit of loft on, so then we get the nice height and get the club sliding under the ball and get a nice amount of spin control.

Now to help maintain that, what I like to get my clients to do is to feel as if the handle height just drops, it is then much easier to maintain that loft and use that lovely bounce angle on the back of the club to help you maximise the success of your trap shots.

So, take a normal trap position, ball a little bit forward, take your normal position where the face is squared, open it up, grip it and let your hands just drop. You can now see from that position how much loft is on that blade, and then your goal is to just slide the legs out from underneath that golf ball.

So handle height helps maintain the loft, helps pop that ball up in the air (especially when you got that high lip) and use that sole of the club to maximum effect.