When Should I Putt From A Green Side Golf Bunker (Video) - by Pete Styles
When Should I Putt From A Green Side Golf Bunker (Video) - by Pete Styles

So you got me thinking, well Pete’s in the bunker again, nothing new there. And if you ever play golf I’m in the bunker again. But this time things are different, I've now got my putter with me. So putting from a bunker, is there something that should be allowed within the rules? Well it's not the case of whether it should be allowed within the rules, it is allowed within the rules. And if there is a certain case where you could putt from a bunker because you're confidence you're so low that you don’t ever want to hit sand wedge, you got to look for the right things in a bunker.

Now ideally we look for a bunker that’s got no lip on it and that’s what we found that we've got no lip on the bunker and so we've got a nice flat bit to run out and then we've got a flag that’s quite a few yards away over there. And because there is no lip on the bunker, the sand bots right up to the edge. Or actually those who normally don’t have to cheat that have raked the sand up against the edge. Because sometimes that’s what it will look like on the golf course. Now ideally we would learn how to hit sand wedge properly after the bunker. But if your bunker gains in such a model and you don’t really feel confident that you can get a good strike on the sand wedge, this is why you might use a putter. And really that’s the crucial part, is the strike, the strike on the ball. Because generally hitting a putt you should get quite a good strike. But if we understand what the ball is going to do, it’s going to roll along the surface, it's going to roll that won't help. That’s going to slow it down. It's really going to roll over that hill slowly. It might even bounce into the sand and kind of stop itself. And when it does bundle out on to the top edge here, it may have a little bit of top spin on it. But it's really not going to go racing across this green. So this needs to be a good firm whack, a decent contact and try and scuttle it out and up this hill. But only play this shot if the conditions are suitable and the conditions allow. I may have a couple of gos with this one but we’ll give it a will, we’ll see whether we can get this thing out. So we get ourselves nice and steady, normal golf putting grip and give it a good contact. There it goes, have a look at that one, that’s rolled down there quite nicely. Now if my camera man can turn around, he’ll be able to show you that that was actually not a million miles away. And I might be the one that’s next in the bunker using my putter. If the camera man can come back again now, we just need to understand that when you're in these situations normal bunker rule do apply. So we don’t want to be grounding the putter, there is penalty shots for doing that. We don’t want to be raking the sand before we get in, penalty shots for testing the surface there. So normal bunker rules apply, get in carefully, couple of practice strokes but not touching the surface, then when you're ready make your stroke the ball will come flying out of the bunker running up the air and when it lands on the surface it will roll down quite nicely. You can only play this shot when the conditions allow and you should really only play this when your confidence is pretty low. I know it sounds daft but if you're going to play this shot in the golf course, go and practice it as well because you can't play it for the first time in a competition. Now if I just show you a different situation where that lip has just got an inch or two of sand that no longer covers the edge and then I'm trying to putt out from there as I hit that, it's going to hit that lip and it's going to fall back in. So like I say, conditions have to be perfect if you're going to putt from the bunker. 2014-10-15

So you got me thinking, well Pete’s in the bunker again, nothing new there. And if you ever play golf I’m in the bunker again. But this time things are different, I've now got my putter with me. So putting from a bunker, is there something that should be allowed within the rules? Well it's not the case of whether it should be allowed within the rules, it is allowed within the rules. And if there is a certain case where you could putt from a bunker because you're confidence you're so low that you don’t ever want to hit sand wedge, you got to look for the right things in a bunker.

Now ideally we look for a bunker that’s got no lip on it and that’s what we found that we've got no lip on the bunker and so we've got a nice flat bit to run out and then we've got a flag that’s quite a few yards away over there. And because there is no lip on the bunker, the sand bots right up to the edge. Or actually those who normally don’t have to cheat that have raked the sand up against the edge. Because sometimes that’s what it will look like on the golf course. Now ideally we would learn how to hit sand wedge properly after the bunker. But if your bunker gains in such a model and you don’t really feel confident that you can get a good strike on the sand wedge, this is why you might use a putter.

And really that’s the crucial part, is the strike, the strike on the ball. Because generally hitting a putt you should get quite a good strike. But if we understand what the ball is going to do, it’s going to roll along the surface, it's going to roll that won't help. That’s going to slow it down. It's really going to roll over that hill slowly. It might even bounce into the sand and kind of stop itself. And when it does bundle out on to the top edge here, it may have a little bit of top spin on it. But it's really not going to go racing across this green. So this needs to be a good firm whack, a decent contact and try and scuttle it out and up this hill.

But only play this shot if the conditions are suitable and the conditions allow. I may have a couple of gos with this one but we’ll give it a will, we’ll see whether we can get this thing out. So we get ourselves nice and steady, normal golf putting grip and give it a good contact. There it goes, have a look at that one, that’s rolled down there quite nicely. Now if my camera man can turn around, he’ll be able to show you that that was actually not a million miles away. And I might be the one that’s next in the bunker using my putter.

If the camera man can come back again now, we just need to understand that when you're in these situations normal bunker rule do apply. So we don’t want to be grounding the putter, there is penalty shots for doing that. We don’t want to be raking the sand before we get in, penalty shots for testing the surface there. So normal bunker rules apply, get in carefully, couple of practice strokes but not touching the surface, then when you're ready make your stroke the ball will come flying out of the bunker running up the air and when it lands on the surface it will roll down quite nicely.

You can only play this shot when the conditions allow and you should really only play this when your confidence is pretty low. I know it sounds daft but if you're going to play this shot in the golf course, go and practice it as well because you can't play it for the first time in a competition. Now if I just show you a different situation where that lip has just got an inch or two of sand that no longer covers the edge and then I'm trying to putt out from there as I hit that, it's going to hit that lip and it's going to fall back in. So like I say, conditions have to be perfect if you're going to putt from the bunker.