In this video, PGA Professional Nick Drane explains the keys to playing the bunker shot
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00:00Hi my name is Nick Drain. I'm a PGA professional and a master fitting
00:08specialist here at the Titleist Performance Center at Woban. In this
00:11video we're going to talk about the greenside bunker shot. The greenside
00:14bunker shot, typically we're going to use our most lofty club in our bag, our
00:18sand iron, anywhere from 56, 58 or 60 degrees and loft. It's the only shot in
00:23golf we're actually not trying to hit the golf ball. We're actually going to
00:25hit the sand behind the ball. I'm going to demonstrate to you ways that we can do
00:30that. A lot of common mistakes that I see golfers make in the bunker is that again
00:35they are trying to help the ball out of the bunker through an incorrect setup
00:38which doesn't allow them the best opportunity to get the ball out of the
00:42sand. Quite often I see golfers trying to move back on the golf ball, so too much
00:48weight on their back foot trying to lift it. As I mentioned earlier we're actually
00:52going to hit the sand not the ball. That's what's going to propel the ball
00:55into the air onto the green. Here's an example of how I see a lot of golfers
01:00make a few mistakes in the bunker. They don't shuffle their feet into the sand, the
01:05ball is too middle of the stance and with regards to the grip they take their
01:10grip and then they open the clubface which in theory isn't actually doing
01:15anything and then they try and lift the ball out of the bunker. You can see there I
01:23didn't actually contact the sand behind the ball and lift it out. Too much golf ball
01:29and it's gone way too far. A couple of key things in your setup you need to pay
01:33particular attention to to allow you to be successful out of the bunker. Firstly
01:37let's talk about the stance width. So a nice wide base, shuffle the feet into the
01:42sand that's going to lower you into the ground. One of the key things, so I've
01:48already got a very lofty golf club in my hand. What I'm going to do is I'm going to
01:51open the clubface slightly and then take my grip. The leading edge of the
01:58golf club is going to point towards my left toe. One thing you'll see in my
02:03setup is that my left foot is turned out slightly. That's going to allow me to put
02:07a little bit more weight on my left side, maybe 60-40 favouring the left and make
02:13it easier as I turn through. My ball position, as I mentioned earlier, this is
02:18the shot where we're going to hit the sand not the golf ball. So in theory I'm
02:22moving the ball a couple of inches ahead of where I would ideally have the ball in
02:27my stance if I was playing off the grass and I'm going to draw a nice line about a
02:32club head width inside my left heel as a reference. I'm now going to focus on
02:37hitting that line in the sand not the golf ball itself. My swing itself I'm going to
02:43make a three-quarter backslink and then make sure that I have all my weight
02:47finishing towards a target and hopefully it'll come out like that.
03:13I'll see you next time.