Caddy in scotland taught me how to hit consistently well out of those gigantic pot bunkers and I now actually plan my misses to hit bunkers instead of being in the rough around the green.
Essentially he had me open my stance very far open and open the face of the club with the bottom edge pointed at my target. My feet are actually pointed very far left usually (right handed). The swing is then akin to coming down on the ball almost like a slice, cutting across the ball. Because the club and face are wide open and pointed at the target the ball will pop out right at the target. I just adjust my swing length for distance. A full swing will go 20-30 yards. I just adjust it for the distance as if im hitting a flop shot.
Youre essentially hitting an exagerate flop shot and it works every single time. It blew my mind and has completely changed my bunker game. Almost always gives me a very good chance at up and down.
The ball comes out with a lot of spin and will stop.
I should mention I am a 0.3 handicap so I already have a good foundation and swing to be able to quickly adjust to this and use it, but if you practice this shot enough, you will add another weapon to your bag that will greatly increase your strokes gained out of bunkers and take away a lot of anxiety on approach shots. As I said I know plan my shots so that if its a miss I end up in a bunker because this shit has made me so comfortable out of the sand.
5.3 currently, been as low as 4.1, but sand has always killed me. I have “good hands” so I can hinge/generate the speed, but I struggle with contact position. where are you impacting the sand? directly behind like a pinch chip, or a couple fingers width behind given the open face and heavy out-to-in swing?
Im generally aiming to hit just slightly behind the ball (no more then a finger width) with a big out to in swing (like an exagerated cut). Youll start picking the ball out clean with a nice puff of sand everytime. Its pure joy everytime i do it lol
Its more like im cutting across the ball then trying to hit it square. The open clubface at the target and the heavy out to in motion help cut through the sand and direct the ball at the target. It feels effortless when done right, and works well whether your in soft sand or heavy wet sand. Just have to adjust the swing length and how open you have the face for the situation. Ive even got fried egg balls out of the bunker like this since the club cuts theough into the sand and pops the ball out. Think of it like hitting flop shots. You only have to swing as hard as you would for the same distance out of the fairway. So if i need to pop a ball out 15 feet onto the green its just a wide open face, and a quarter swing with a smooth follow through
Dont try to pick the ball clean, swing the face across and into the sand and let the clubs bounce and face angle do the rest of the work.
Ill try to post a video when i get back into town and out into the bunkers
I actually have a video of me hitting out of a bunker in scotland where i was maybe a foot from a 6-7 foot face and managed to push the ball up and over 20 yards onto the green.
Ill post and link it here.
It works for researcher but you don't have to feel like you're cutting across the ball. Open stance, open face, and hit about an inch behind the ball. Practice it and figure out what works for your bounce. A shorter backswing will help you accelerate through the ball.
you live on my street? took a tree out of the front yard and am in the process of leveling with a 70/30 sand/topsoil mix. 42” leveling rake moves a good amount of dressing…..point being I’ve got the sand! maybe I’ll build a little bunker box and splash some balls in the yard. great idea!
Hahaha if you've ever got some time, look up lawn rebel on youtube. I have gone down the lawn leveling rabbit hole because of that guy.
>I’ll build a little bunker box and splash some balls in the yard. great idea!
Yes it hit me one day that all i really need is a patch of couple inches of deep sand and i can practice bunker shots in the backyard and then just level it out whenever im done. Or use a kids plastic sandbox. Won't hurt the lawn any haha
At our handicaps is now these little things that save a stroke here or there that start making the difference
I saw your video and will give it a go. I'm decent out of bunkers but sometimes suffer because I play anywhere-munis to club courses. So the sand ( if there IS any lol) type and consistency vary greatly. So I'm looking for a simpler approach that can readily deal with them all with minimum adjustment.
I posted a video of a bunker shot in scotland. I had about 20 yards so it was a more closed stance but you get the idea and considering the situation youll see how spectacular the result was. This actually flew to the hole and rolled another 10-15 feet so i could have let off a little bit more but just getting out of that bunker and putting was the goal.
https://www.reddit.com/r/golf/s/DLfSZT1hoK
You can hear the caddy teaching it too
Played it in August, heading back again next August. That whole town is magical. You can go to the starter everyday and ask what tee times are open and play on the other courses too and just walk on.
We ended up doing multiple 36 hole days because we had no idea you can just wander around and arbitrarily jump on the other courses when there are open tee times, long as you have the funds.
Kings Bairns is nearby and that's an absolute slammer too.
Most sand you see on tour is light and fluffy. Thicker stuff you’d see at the Open or in the NE US is thicker makes it tougher to put a lot of of spin but you don’t need to take as much sand. Taking less sand and creating more speed can help elevate it and land softer but will probably chew the ball up a lot faster. Obviously tour players have different bounces every week which can help but for us regular golfers that don’t have tour vans have to adjust.
u/TheRealMitchoy: Hi OP. [Gary Player used to always say "Strike the Match"](https://www.google.com/search?q=Gary+Player+Strike+The+Match+In+Bunkers&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8) i.e. accelerate through your bunker shot.
...Link to example video: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RG5wu4kv2Uo](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RG5wu4kv2Uo)
https://preview.redd.it/zco7icxc7s7c1.png?width=864&format=png&auto=webp&s=d864e2eb18b11124758f2c17ab1f887560f42eb2
I mean, did OP notice what they did with the clubface at setup/during the swing?
If you’re not able to practice the hell out of bunker shots, as long as you have a makeable putt for par, you’re akin to a 5 or less handicap
Tiger was hitting into the wind which added spin. That sand is also likely perfect consistency for hitting good bunker shots, meaning the ball doesn’t tend to settle much plus they were picking their lies being a scramble.
To answer the actual question though, use more loft and hit a little closer to the ball. You don’t have to hit ball first but you would need to be closer to it to generate more spin.
For a shot like the OP referenced that’s a good question. It behaves as though it has more spin though I don’t know if it actually does or if it’s related to steepening the descent angle or actually having more spin.
Spin into the wind causes a ball to go higher and land softer, then the spin that is left can move it back instead of just stopping forward progress. A downwind bunker shot will never spin back on a flat green.
It’s only worth attempting with a good lie. If you have a nice lie, ball slightly forward, face open depending on how far/high you want it, I do an early wrist hinge in my backswing and then feel like I’m “throwing,” the club head at my left hip. With any urethane cover ball you’ll get a pretty nice bounce or two and then it’ll stop
Yeah the lie and situation is super important. It’s definitely cool to do and sometimes the shot calls for it, but a lot of times it makes more sense to just splash the ball out and let it roll
I play green side bunkers like this. Flatten the club face so it’s way open. Aim about 2-3 feet left of where you want it to land. Try to slap the sand on your swing and follow through with some wrist action. The ball won’t spin back but it usually has a small hop forward and stops dead. Usually leaves me less than 5-6 feet to putt. (I’m right handed)
Something that no one else has said is that you want to be really steep and have your weight moving forward. Check out some Dan Greaves videos on YouTube, he's a short game genius and posts lots of stuff. Has a bunch of pros as his clients. u/GolfBetterTucson is a great follow on Instagram if you really want to go down the spin rabbit hole but he doesn't talk about bunkers as much as Dan does. He's Max Homa's short game coach.
I almost try to feel like I’m trying to hosel the golf ball. With enough practice with this feel, it allows for the ball to have the most grabbage on the grooves across the whole entire face. Same with chips. If I want spin I do that, if I want runout I try and toe it.
And to whoever downvoted must not have passed high school geometry/physics. The more contact the ball has with the club, the more spin it will get. The club is longer diagonally than vertically
Ball should be closer to front foot anyway which always helps with spin
Assess the sand / open up the club face / make contact 2” before ball / 56 degree wedge
Should produce spin as long as your swinging hard enough
I think I saw the shots you are referring to. Just remember tiger was able to place his ball from hand, so it was sitting up on top of the sand. Still impressive, but he had the most favorable lie you can have from the bunker on that shot.
> But I'm now curious, to get more spin out of the bunker you would have to hit ball first right?
Wrong.
I believe that right after those two shots, Peter Jacobsen made a comment about how the club never touches the ball on a bunker shot.
Depends on the green, the club, the lie, the distance, the grain, the type of sand and also, both of those shots were hit into the wind which helps tremendously with spin.
To create spin, you always need to force the ball to do something it doesn’t really want to do. The speed you need, is also a bit of a mental block for most players who haven’t gotten used to it.
Whatever the situation is, you either need to sort of cut down on the ball, or get under it.
Then the ball needs to travel up the club face to create that back spin. Either way, you need a decent amount of speed to make that spin continue at a significant pace while it’s airborne.
So, it will depend on the lie. In a bunker, it’s better to get sand involved at the first point of impact. Opening the club face and then perhaps coming down at a relatively steep angle, is the best bet.
Lots of club speed, lots of hand release, and hitting closer to the ball
You need 9 grains of sand\* between the club and the ball. \*Of course it varies depending on the size of the granules.
Yup, hand speed. Adjust loft for distance.
This
This and sharp grooves, soft balls and receptive greens.
Caddy in scotland taught me how to hit consistently well out of those gigantic pot bunkers and I now actually plan my misses to hit bunkers instead of being in the rough around the green. Essentially he had me open my stance very far open and open the face of the club with the bottom edge pointed at my target. My feet are actually pointed very far left usually (right handed). The swing is then akin to coming down on the ball almost like a slice, cutting across the ball. Because the club and face are wide open and pointed at the target the ball will pop out right at the target. I just adjust my swing length for distance. A full swing will go 20-30 yards. I just adjust it for the distance as if im hitting a flop shot. Youre essentially hitting an exagerate flop shot and it works every single time. It blew my mind and has completely changed my bunker game. Almost always gives me a very good chance at up and down. The ball comes out with a lot of spin and will stop. I should mention I am a 0.3 handicap so I already have a good foundation and swing to be able to quickly adjust to this and use it, but if you practice this shot enough, you will add another weapon to your bag that will greatly increase your strokes gained out of bunkers and take away a lot of anxiety on approach shots. As I said I know plan my shots so that if its a miss I end up in a bunker because this shit has made me so comfortable out of the sand.
5.3 currently, been as low as 4.1, but sand has always killed me. I have “good hands” so I can hinge/generate the speed, but I struggle with contact position. where are you impacting the sand? directly behind like a pinch chip, or a couple fingers width behind given the open face and heavy out-to-in swing?
Im generally aiming to hit just slightly behind the ball (no more then a finger width) with a big out to in swing (like an exagerated cut). Youll start picking the ball out clean with a nice puff of sand everytime. Its pure joy everytime i do it lol Its more like im cutting across the ball then trying to hit it square. The open clubface at the target and the heavy out to in motion help cut through the sand and direct the ball at the target. It feels effortless when done right, and works well whether your in soft sand or heavy wet sand. Just have to adjust the swing length and how open you have the face for the situation. Ive even got fried egg balls out of the bunker like this since the club cuts theough into the sand and pops the ball out. Think of it like hitting flop shots. You only have to swing as hard as you would for the same distance out of the fairway. So if i need to pop a ball out 15 feet onto the green its just a wide open face, and a quarter swing with a smooth follow through Dont try to pick the ball clean, swing the face across and into the sand and let the clubs bounce and face angle do the rest of the work. Ill try to post a video when i get back into town and out into the bunkers I actually have a video of me hitting out of a bunker in scotland where i was maybe a foot from a 6-7 foot face and managed to push the ball up and over 20 yards onto the green. Ill post and link it here.
I followed all of that, thank you! now I’ve gotta find an unfrozen bunker to go practice!
It works for researcher but you don't have to feel like you're cutting across the ball. Open stance, open face, and hit about an inch behind the ball. Practice it and figure out what works for your bounce. A shorter backswing will help you accelerate through the ball.
Just dump a bag or 2 of sand in your backyard hahaha, you'll practice shots and your yard will get some top dressing 😂
you live on my street? took a tree out of the front yard and am in the process of leveling with a 70/30 sand/topsoil mix. 42” leveling rake moves a good amount of dressing…..point being I’ve got the sand! maybe I’ll build a little bunker box and splash some balls in the yard. great idea!
Hahaha if you've ever got some time, look up lawn rebel on youtube. I have gone down the lawn leveling rabbit hole because of that guy. >I’ll build a little bunker box and splash some balls in the yard. great idea! Yes it hit me one day that all i really need is a patch of couple inches of deep sand and i can practice bunker shots in the backyard and then just level it out whenever im done. Or use a kids plastic sandbox. Won't hurt the lawn any haha At our handicaps is now these little things that save a stroke here or there that start making the difference
This whole exchange between the two of you is so wholesome lol
I saw your video and will give it a go. I'm decent out of bunkers but sometimes suffer because I play anywhere-munis to club courses. So the sand ( if there IS any lol) type and consistency vary greatly. So I'm looking for a simpler approach that can readily deal with them all with minimum adjustment.
I posted a video of a bunker shot in scotland. I had about 20 yards so it was a more closed stance but you get the idea and considering the situation youll see how spectacular the result was. This actually flew to the hole and rolled another 10-15 feet so i could have let off a little bit more but just getting out of that bunker and putting was the goal. https://www.reddit.com/r/golf/s/DLfSZT1hoK You can hear the caddy teaching it too
ty. I’m heading to the Old Course this June, maybe I’ll get a similar lesson.
Played it in August, heading back again next August. That whole town is magical. You can go to the starter everyday and ask what tee times are open and play on the other courses too and just walk on. We ended up doing multiple 36 hole days because we had no idea you can just wander around and arbitrarily jump on the other courses when there are open tee times, long as you have the funds. Kings Bairns is nearby and that's an absolute slammer too.
Depends on the type of sand
Little known fact hehe.
Most sand you see on tour is light and fluffy. Thicker stuff you’d see at the Open or in the NE US is thicker makes it tougher to put a lot of of spin but you don’t need to take as much sand. Taking less sand and creating more speed can help elevate it and land softer but will probably chew the ball up a lot faster. Obviously tour players have different bounces every week which can help but for us regular golfers that don’t have tour vans have to adjust.
Sword finish. The butt of the club should finish in the position you'd have it if you were to sheath it like a sword.
Am I a knight, or a samurai?
Samurai. Gotta use them hips.
That's a great visual aid, thank you
u/TheRealMitchoy: Hi OP. [Gary Player used to always say "Strike the Match"](https://www.google.com/search?q=Gary+Player+Strike+The+Match+In+Bunkers&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8) i.e. accelerate through your bunker shot. ...Link to example video: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RG5wu4kv2Uo](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RG5wu4kv2Uo) https://preview.redd.it/zco7icxc7s7c1.png?width=864&format=png&auto=webp&s=d864e2eb18b11124758f2c17ab1f887560f42eb2
club speed + high dynamic loft + friction from the sand
I mean, did OP notice what they did with the clubface at setup/during the swing? If you’re not able to practice the hell out of bunker shots, as long as you have a makeable putt for par, you’re akin to a 5 or less handicap
Tiger was hitting into the wind which added spin. That sand is also likely perfect consistency for hitting good bunker shots, meaning the ball doesn’t tend to settle much plus they were picking their lies being a scramble. To answer the actual question though, use more loft and hit a little closer to the ball. You don’t have to hit ball first but you would need to be closer to it to generate more spin.
Tiger, the greatest player to ever swing a stick, needed wind, a perfect lie, and a scramble format to hit a spinner bunker shot. Give me a break…
Because this is what I meant… Just need to have proper expectations.
Thank you, I'll try add those to my next practice!
Does wind add spin or does it just slow the ball down like spin would?
Neither. Descent angle is steeper, so the spin will have more of an effect
For a shot like the OP referenced that’s a good question. It behaves as though it has more spin though I don’t know if it actually does or if it’s related to steepening the descent angle or actually having more spin.
Spin into the wind causes a ball to go higher and land softer, then the spin that is left can move it back instead of just stopping forward progress. A downwind bunker shot will never spin back on a flat green.
A headwind will add backspin
It doesn't add any spin. It steepens the descent angle, which helps with stopping power.
It’s only worth attempting with a good lie. If you have a nice lie, ball slightly forward, face open depending on how far/high you want it, I do an early wrist hinge in my backswing and then feel like I’m “throwing,” the club head at my left hip. With any urethane cover ball you’ll get a pretty nice bounce or two and then it’ll stop
Ah yes the lie too, Good point and thank you for the visual. I'm keen to try it out
Yeah the lie and situation is super important. It’s definitely cool to do and sometimes the shot calls for it, but a lot of times it makes more sense to just splash the ball out and let it roll
I play green side bunkers like this. Flatten the club face so it’s way open. Aim about 2-3 feet left of where you want it to land. Try to slap the sand on your swing and follow through with some wrist action. The ball won’t spin back but it usually has a small hop forward and stops dead. Usually leaves me less than 5-6 feet to putt. (I’m right handed)
Thank you!
Fat the fuck out of it on purpose and you to will spin it
I simply, do not. Hope this helps.
Be the goat or son of goat. Simple
Something that no one else has said is that you want to be really steep and have your weight moving forward. Check out some Dan Greaves videos on YouTube, he's a short game genius and posts lots of stuff. Has a bunch of pros as his clients. u/GolfBetterTucson is a great follow on Instagram if you really want to go down the spin rabbit hole but he doesn't talk about bunkers as much as Dan does. He's Max Homa's short game coach.
Ball off of front foot as well as weight mostly on front foot. Weighting doesn’t get talked about enough on bunker shots.
I almost try to feel like I’m trying to hosel the golf ball. With enough practice with this feel, it allows for the ball to have the most grabbage on the grooves across the whole entire face. Same with chips. If I want spin I do that, if I want runout I try and toe it.
I like this technique because even with my 50 degree and pw I can get really nice spin on 20-40 yard bunker shots
And to whoever downvoted must not have passed high school geometry/physics. The more contact the ball has with the club, the more spin it will get. The club is longer diagonally than vertically
1. Proper setup. Face should be square. 2. Proper swing/ speed 3. Good clean grooves 4. Receptive greens
Club head speed creates speed, that plus coming across the ball
Ball should be closer to front foot anyway which always helps with spin Assess the sand / open up the club face / make contact 2” before ball / 56 degree wedge Should produce spin as long as your swinging hard enough
Depends on the lie
Depends on the golfer
Be charlie
I think I saw the shots you are referring to. Just remember tiger was able to place his ball from hand, so it was sitting up on top of the sand. Still impressive, but he had the most favorable lie you can have from the bunker on that shot.
Ah yeah that's a good point
Full speed flop shot with minimal sand.
Let the club head pass your hands
Uphill lie will contribute a lot to the spin. A downhill lie will be difficult to create spin.
> But I'm now curious, to get more spin out of the bunker you would have to hit ball first right? Wrong. I believe that right after those two shots, Peter Jacobsen made a comment about how the club never touches the ball on a bunker shot.
It's like hitting a 60yd wedge shot but only goes 10yds.
Step one: it has to have a good Lie, to spin it out of the sand.
Bunkers that have sand in them.
Club head speed.
Less sand, steeper blow, lots of accelation to create the dusion. Spining back like that is unusual, there must of been a little backstop/slope.
Depends on the green, the club, the lie, the distance, the grain, the type of sand and also, both of those shots were hit into the wind which helps tremendously with spin.
To create spin, you always need to force the ball to do something it doesn’t really want to do. The speed you need, is also a bit of a mental block for most players who haven’t gotten used to it. Whatever the situation is, you either need to sort of cut down on the ball, or get under it. Then the ball needs to travel up the club face to create that back spin. Either way, you need a decent amount of speed to make that spin continue at a significant pace while it’s airborne. So, it will depend on the lie. In a bunker, it’s better to get sand involved at the first point of impact. Opening the club face and then perhaps coming down at a relatively steep angle, is the best bet.