Golf Bunker Play
Setup
- Put alignment sticks in sand and make a cross along your target line and middle of your stance
- Don’t move the ball up in your stance, don’t open stance
- Instead, square up stance and put ball in middle of stance. Will allow you to engage the bounce.
- Club face alignment:
- Open face up
- Step a bit further away, lower hands
- This will square the face back at the target
- By getting further away from the ball, we can lower hands and get round and steep in our backswing
- Keep shaft neutral to back, keeping club face open with hands lowered
- Don’t worry about weak or strong. Instead, get further towards the end of the grip
- Dig feet in just a bit
Backswing
- Need to go longer with the backswing
- Want to allow time to get the clubhead back to the ball and allow shaft to get to neutral. About 3/4 swing.
Release
- Reminder: club face wide open, long and wide backswing
- Want to feel like the club face (which was open) is releasing through so that the face is along the target line
- More of a handsy motion, as we are manipulating the face
- Don’t want the hands dragging the grip through
- Club head feels like it is winning the race to the ball
Special Cases
- Uphill Lie – don’t put ball ahead in your stance. If anything put it back a small amount. Shoulders match the slope, 70% of weight on trail leg.
- Ball Above Feet – grip down just a bit (maybe an inch), more of a baseball swing. Will come out softer, may need to swing a bit harder. Aim a bit right as the ball will come out to the left.
- Plugged Lie – don’t want a rounded attack angle. Get closer to the ball, and focus on steepness. Hinge up, and think about dropping the club head on the back of the ball, almost no follow-through.
- Downslope lie – weight into the front foot, shoulders align parallel with the slope. Move ball to front of stance. Don’t let the hands come forward with shaft lean. Keep it neutral or back. Need to provide as much loft as possible. Lock the front leg in, avoid any lateral movement.
- Ball Below Feet – don’t expect much! Get further away from the ball, keep club-face open, aim a bit left. No lateral movement. Keep legs quiet, engage core.
- Short-sided – Must provide loft on the club face to get ball up and stop it quick. A bit more weight on the front foot. Get even further away from ball, lower hands. Big swing with big follow-through.
- Long Bunker Shot – Can go down in loft. Whatever you do, don’t square the face. Keep face open. Get a bit closer to the ball. 5% shift to trail leg. Lower club-head on follow-through
- Ball Sitting Down – Come in steep and dig heel down and underneath the ball. Very short follow-through. Focus on getting the heel engaged.
- Firm Sand – Keep face open, slight weight to front foot, shaft neutral. Think about heel digging in with a short follow-through. No interaction with the toe.
- Soft Sand – Go with a lower lofted club (54 deg) because there’s more resistance. Swing will require more speed, slightly more weight on the trail foot. Don’t want to get steep; stay shallow. So more club with same swing will go as far.
- Chunk and Run – Maybe trying to get the ball to run out more. Follow-through will be shorter and pointing at target. Steeper angle of attack. Will be deeper, driving the ball out. Less lofted club.
- Spinner – Highest loft club. Must setup with most loft possible. Hands lower, get away from ball, more club speed. Speed == spin.
- Lower Lofted Shot – Just need to dial in carry distances with the different lofted clubs. Practice each wedge.
Drills
- Low Point Control – Draw a perpendicular line in the sand. Practice with 10 different swings, trying to hit just slightly behind the line. Work your way up the line and keep practicing. Move line around in your stance. That spot will be about 2” behind the ball.
- Lead Hand Only – Helps to feel the proper release, feeling the back edge of the club interacting with the sand. Hinge and un-hinge.
- Speed Drill – Have to have speed in the bunker. Setup with no ball, and swing about as hard as you can, feeling impact of club on the bunker.
- Height Drill – Practice with a less lofted club (like a PW) and try to get as much loft as humanly possible. Get far away and lay the club very flat. Maybe drop trail foot back a bit. Try to get it as high as the flag stick. Only be concerned about how much height you are adding.
https://static.chrisbrooks.org/3.+Resources/Short+Game+Chef/Bunker/01+Alignment+and+Ball+Position.mp4
https://static.chrisbrooks.org/3.+Resources/Short+Game+Chef/Bunker/02+Club+Face+Alignment.mp4
https://static.chrisbrooks.org/3.+Resources/Short+Game+Chef/Bunker/03+Club+Face+Direction+and+Stance+Distance.mp4
https://static.chrisbrooks.org/3.+Resources/Short+Game+Chef/Bunker/04+Club+Face+&+Shaft+Positioning.mp4
https://static.chrisbrooks.org/3.+Resources/Short+Game+Chef/Bunker/05+Club+Face+Alignment+and+Flight+Lines.mp4
https://static.chrisbrooks.org/3.+Resources/Short+Game+Chef/Bunker/06+Grip.mp4
https://static.chrisbrooks.org/3.+Resources/Short+Game+Chef/Bunker/07+Length+of+Backswing.mp4
https://static.chrisbrooks.org/3.+Resources/Short+Game+Chef/Bunker/08+Club+Face+Release.mp4
https://static.chrisbrooks.org/3.+Resources/Short+Game+Chef/Bunker/09+Spin+-+Secret+Sauce.mp4
https://static.chrisbrooks.org/3.+Resources/Short+Game+Chef/Bunker/10+Summary.mp4
https://static.chrisbrooks.org/3.+Resources/Short+Game+Chef/Bunker/11+Uphill+Lie.mp4
https://static.chrisbrooks.org/3.+Resources/Short+Game+Chef/Bunker/12+Ball+Above+Feet.mp4
https://static.chrisbrooks.org/3.+Resources/Short+Game+Chef/Bunker/13+Plugged+Lie.mp4
https://static.chrisbrooks.org/3.+Resources/Short+Game+Chef/Bunker/14+Downhill+Lie.mp4
https://static.chrisbrooks.org/3.+Resources/Short+Game+Chef/Bunker/15+Ball+Below+Feet.mp4
https://static.chrisbrooks.org/3.+Resources/Short+Game+Chef/Bunker/16+Short+Sided+Shots.mp4
https://static.chrisbrooks.org/3.+Resources/Short+Game+Chef/Bunker/17+Long+Shot.mp4
https://static.chrisbrooks.org/3.+Resources/Short+Game+Chef/Bunker/18+Ball+Sitting+Down.mp4
https://static.chrisbrooks.org/3.+Resources/Short+Game+Chef/Bunker/19+Firm+Sand.mp4
https://static.chrisbrooks.org/3.+Resources/Short+Game+Chef/Bunker/20+Soft+Sand.mp4
https://static.chrisbrooks.org/3.+Resources/Short+Game+Chef/Bunker/21+Intentional+Chunk+&+Run.mp4
https://static.chrisbrooks.org/3.+Resources/Short+Game+Chef/Bunker/22+Spinner.mp4
https://static.chrisbrooks.org/3.+Resources/Short+Game+Chef/Bunker/23+Lower+Lofted+Shots.mp4
https://static.chrisbrooks.org/3.+Resources/Short+Game+Chef/Bunker/24+Low+Point+Control.mp4
https://static.chrisbrooks.org/3.+Resources/Short+Game+Chef/Bunker/25+Lead+Hand+Only.mp4
https://static.chrisbrooks.org/3.+Resources/Short+Game+Chef/Bunker/26+Speed.mp4
https://static.chrisbrooks.org/3.+Resources/Short+Game+Chef/Bunker/27+Providing+Height.mp4
https://static.chrisbrooks.org/3.+Resources/Short+Game+Chef/Bunker/28+The+Plugged+Bunker+-+Part+1.mp4
https://static.chrisbrooks.org/3.+Resources/Short+Game+Chef/Bunker/29+The+Plugged+Bunker+-+Part+2.mp4
https://static.chrisbrooks.org/3.+Resources/Short+Game+Chef/Bunker/30+The+Plugged+Bunker+-+Part+3.mp4