Why Do Golf Pros Bury Their Feet In The Bunker? (Video) - by Pete Styles
Why Do Golf Pros Bury Their Feet In The Bunker? (Video) - by Pete Styles

We all know from watching golf on the TV that most of the pros have their own little quirks and their own little traits, but there is one thing they share in common, particularly when they play a bunker shot and there’s this little move they do just to as they’re setting into the bunker shot, everything is looking good and then they do that. And everyone at home says why do they do that, what’s all that about. They’re doing a little dance in the bunker, what’s that for? But actually the pros are burying their feet in the sand, maybe half an inch to an inch down in the sand. There is three reasons why good golf pros would always burry their feet in the sand, the first one is just to actually give them a decent grip. If you’re standing with your feet on the top of very loose sand and then you make your swing, there’s a risk that sand shifts underneath you and the pro doesn’t like that. So he is going to burry his feet down a little bit just to get rid of that loose top surface, just to anchor his feet down a little bit. So the first reason is to get a decent grip.

The second reason is actually because when we hit the goal ball, we’re trying to hit a couple of inches – well an inch maybe below the goal ball. We had a couple of inches behind on the div it would be half an inch to an inch deep. So if you drop your feet down half an inch to an inch deep as well, your then swinging to the base of your feet which is kind of what you do in a normal golf shot anyway. So anchoring your feet down gives you the grip, lowers you down a little bit so the bottom of your swing ark comes a little bit to help you get underneath the golf ball. And the third and last reason is actually it’s one of the only legal ways you can test the surface of the sand. So if you walk into a bunker particularly on a golf course that you’re not familiar with playing, you might not know whether the sand is deep and soft and fluffy or whether its sparse and hard and baked underneath. So as you put your feet into the bunker and have a little shuffle the more experience you get of the game and the golf, the more that will tell you about the surface of the sand and therefore the way you should play your bunker shot. So you might find that towards the edges of a nice well maintained bunker it’s quite soft, fluffy sand but if you want into the middle of a badly maintained bunker and try and screw your feet into the ground there you’ll find there is very little sand it might be bare, if it has been raining, it might be very difficult to get the club down at all, it might almost be a clay sort of substance under there. So depending on where you are in the bunker, the type of bunker that you playing, the type of golf course you’re playing, screwing your feet into the ground before the golf shot can give you a really good feeling of the type of sand, it will get you down to the right level, it will also give you the feeling that your feet aren’t going to move around too much so that now you know that’s why the pros wiggle their feet in the bunker before they play their shots. 2014-01-17

We all know from watching golf on the TV that most of the pros have their own little quirks and their own little traits, but there is one thing they share in common, particularly when they play a bunker shot and there’s this little move they do just to as they’re setting into the bunker shot, everything is looking good and then they do that. And everyone at home says why do they do that, what’s all that about. They’re doing a little dance in the bunker, what’s that for? But actually the pros are burying their feet in the sand, maybe half an inch to an inch down in the sand. There is three reasons why good golf pros would always burry their feet in the sand, the first one is just to actually give them a decent grip. If you’re standing with your feet on the top of very loose sand and then you make your swing, there’s a risk that sand shifts underneath you and the pro doesn’t like that. So he is going to burry his feet down a little bit just to get rid of that loose top surface, just to anchor his feet down a little bit. So the first reason is to get a decent grip.

The second reason is actually because when we hit the goal ball, we’re trying to hit a couple of inches – well an inch maybe below the goal ball. We had a couple of inches behind on the div it would be half an inch to an inch deep. So if you drop your feet down half an inch to an inch deep as well, your then swinging to the base of your feet which is kind of what you do in a normal golf shot anyway. So anchoring your feet down gives you the grip, lowers you down a little bit so the bottom of your swing ark comes a little bit to help you get underneath the golf ball.

And the third and last reason is actually it’s one of the only legal ways you can test the surface of the sand. So if you walk into a bunker particularly on a golf course that you’re not familiar with playing, you might not know whether the sand is deep and soft and fluffy or whether its sparse and hard and baked underneath. So as you put your feet into the bunker and have a little shuffle the more experience you get of the game and the golf, the more that will tell you about the surface of the sand and therefore the way you should play your bunker shot. So you might find that towards the edges of a nice well maintained bunker it’s quite soft, fluffy sand but if you want into the middle of a badly maintained bunker and try and screw your feet into the ground there you’ll find there is very little sand it might be bare, if it has been raining, it might be very difficult to get the club down at all, it might almost be a clay sort of substance under there. So depending on where you are in the bunker, the type of bunker that you playing, the type of golf course you’re playing, screwing your feet into the ground before the golf shot can give you a really good feeling of the type of sand, it will get you down to the right level, it will also give you the feeling that your feet aren’t going to move around too much so that now you know that’s why the pros wiggle their feet in the bunker before they play their shots.