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How To Play Bunkers And Sand Traps

By Lee MacRae

A bunker beside the green is a fearsome place to be. Surprisingly, this is one of the easiest shots to perfect and can actually be an enjoyable part of your golf game. Just learn the proper techniques and apply a few tips and your bunker game will flourish.

Landing in someone else's footprint in a bunker can be very frustrating. Especially if they are rakes stationed around the sand! But getting worked up about someone else's misdeeds won't help you escape. The trick here is to treat your ball as though it were in a buried lie. Pick up the club sharply and hit sharply down behind the ball to avoid the surrounding barrier of sand. You may also want to adjust your angle of attack depending on how the footprint lies. The only difference between the footprint shot and a buried lie shot is that you use a sand wedge and not a pitching wedge. You want to dig through the sides of the footprint [hence the angle of attack] but beyond that it's a normal sand shot.

Ask any professional golfer the toughest shot in golf and he'll say the 60 yard sand shot. Even the top players have trouble deciding whether this calls for an explosion shot or a normal wedge shot. Fortunately, we average players don't have to make that decision. The 60 yard explosion just isn't in our bags. So we'll make do with the normal wedge shot. Stand squarely, with the ball in the middle of your stance. As with the long bunker shot, you should make contact with the ball first, to remain as steady as possible for as long as possible. As this requires you to swing with only your hands and arms, you'll want to take a club or two more than usual [but bear in mind that playing the ball farther back than normal will deloft the clubface slightly]. For anything up to 75 yards, the average players to use a pitching wedge hit with a three quarters swing.

Because every golfer wants to get up and down from greenside sand, there is always a great pressure to hit the ball close from a bunker. The fact is, however, that a top pro who gets up and down half the time is doing very well indeed. For this reason you should not concentrate on hitting sand shots to tap-in range [that is, to within three feet] as you would do for a long putt. Focus instead on hitting to within a target that's 12 to 15 feet in diameter. That gives you up to 7 1/2 feet to play with on each side of the hole can be much easier bull's-eye to deal with. You'll be more relaxed and will hit the ball even closer.

And no matter what you do, even for sand play, always imagine the shot before you take it. And imagine the shot being succesfull! Not much sense in defeating yourself before you even start. Imagine yourself being successful throughout your golf game and watch your game flourish.

About the author

Lee MacRae runs several online stores where you can find a great weighted golf club or a great clone golf club today!

Let's Talk About Golf

Many swing faults occur from an improper setup. This can cause unnecessary adjustments during the swing. Taking care to position the ball, feet, hips and shoulders properly ensures building a good swing foundation. Testing has shown golfers with open stances show no more tendency to slice than golfers with closed stances. The open stance may give the golfers a little more opportunity to slice, because it allows a little more freedom in the downswing and follow-though. The square stance is used by most successful golfers. Beginners should start with a square stance. As you advance, you can experiment with the advantages of other stances. Avoid extreme stances. Experiment to find the stance that works best for you. Take care to set up consistently on all normal shots.
...PGA of America

Build An Athletic Platform
Developing a powerful and consistent golf swing always starts with the address position. Tension should be avoided at all costs. Instead, the setup should have a light and bouncy feel that gets you ready to move freely in an athletic way. Tension restricts the body from moving properly and requires the hands and arms to play too active a role in the swing. Rehearse your setup carefully, and your swing will improve.
...Golf Tips magazine

The trajectory of a golf ball and the distance it travels depends on its initial trajectory, speed and spin, as well as what it's moving through (air). The air is not always the same. It varies in temperature, pressure, humidity and density. If there were no air whatsoever, the golf ball would not travel far. Likewise, if a ball is hit in air with no spin, it will not travel far.
...The Golf Channel

The reason for good extension in the follow through is to keep the clubface accelerating at impact! The reason that the slice is so common is that many players try to keep the clubface angle square to the target throught and after impact. This actually opens the face,resulting in a left to right spin to the ball (Slice).
...LPGA tips

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