More like a day at the beach

"A passion, an obsession, a romance, a nice acquaintanceship with trees, sand and water." – Bob Ryan

The golf course has many obstacles designed to create fear and hesitation. The one hazard that players have the most common anxiety with is the sand trap. As students are heading south to beaches for spring break and annual Carolina golf trips are taking place, let’s increase the attitude of bunker shots. For most tour professionals, aiming their shots into bunkers is something purposely done to recover. Unfortunately for most amateurs, the sand is the last place on the golf course they want to be. To gain more comfort in the sand the key is in the set up. In my instructional sessions, we highlight the fundamental address position as well as finish, to properly escape from the sand. To better understand the proper geometry of the address, let’s take a look at the attached photo. With this approach, you no longer have to look for that “magical” as seen on television wedge for help and have confidence in your ability to execute the needed shot.

During my instruction, this set up position is better known as the “3 lefts”. The first mark, or better seen above as the little mark just above the “T”, is for our clubface. If laid down normally, the “leading edge” of the club would dig too deeply and not properly glide through the sand. So, we open the clubface, just slightly, to help utilize the bounce of the club while using the sand to blast the golf ball up in the air. Next, we align our feet just left of target to help counter act our open clubface. This is highlighted from the top line of the letter “T”. Lastly, we have our ball position slightly forward in our stance. For a right-handed golfer, this would mean the ball is slightly closer to the left foot rather than in the middle. This is showcased from the horizontal line just inside of the left heel. Once we have the proper set up accomplished, the final step is maintaining momentum down the target line.

The biggest mistake made by players, is stopping energy once the club hits the sand, rather than following through to a balanced club position. The proper finish is when the club, arms, and chest are trusted into swinging together to produce the golf ball to propel out high and soft onto the green somewhere near the hole. After giving this technique the needed practice, hitting a shot into the bunker will become more like a trip to the beach than hitting over the green monster at Fenway.