How to Play a Successful Fairway Wood Shot from the Sand (Video) - by Pete Styles
How to Play a Successful Fairway Wood Shot from the Sand (Video) - by Pete Styles

Good question this one because I think most people when they walk into a bunker immediately just grab a sand wedge they just think sand wedge and chop it out. And then when they are watching the TV they think why is he there in the fairway wood, he's got a fairway wood for a bunker I didn’t know you are allowed to do that. So you can use a fairway wood, you can use a fairway wood anywhere you like on the golf course. Is it smart to use it out of a fairway bunker? It very much depends on the situation, so let's not say black and white yes you should, no you shouldn’t. You've really got to get out there onto the golf course and assess the quality of the fairway bunker, the size of the lip of the fairway bunker the quality of the lie within the fairway bunker and the distance you've got to go to the flag. If it’s a long way than a quite wider fairway with a low level lip and a good lie all of those things line up together maybe it's time to start using a fairway wood from a fairway bunker.

Now the purpose of the fairway wood from that bunker is to generate distance, you should try and hit the ball out there as far as you can but you need to have those conditions, because if you put a big lip in the way where's that ball going to go? It just goes straight forwards, it hits the lip and you are back in the bunker. So you need to get all those positions right, low lip long distance good lie. Then play the ball from just slightly ahead of center, don’t play it too far forwards you will probably hit the sand first. Play it just forward ahead of center a little bit of body weight on the left side as you’re coming down into the golf ball and try and take some sand but after the golf ball, different from a normal green side bunker shot, green side bunker shot would be splashing the sand two inches behind the ball, the ball comes out in a cushion of sand. You try that on a fairway bunker the sand slows the club down kills it for distance. So we want to try and take the ball and then the sand afterwards effectively like taking a divot on the fairway, so it's almost going to be a little bit of a plunge forwards, so the ball is back from a normal fairway wood position body weight is going left side as we swing down, punch down try and take the sand after the ball and if we can punch it down there that ball has come out low and shooting forwards, but I'd have to be aware if there was a lip more than a foot or two high in front of me that ball would hit the lip and come back. So you can play a fairway wood from a fairway bunker but you've got to choose the right time and the right place. 2014-11-06

Good question this one because I think most people when they walk into a bunker immediately just grab a sand wedge they just think sand wedge and chop it out. And then when they are watching the TV they think why is he there in the fairway wood, he's got a fairway wood for a bunker I didn’t know you are allowed to do that. So you can use a fairway wood, you can use a fairway wood anywhere you like on the golf course. Is it smart to use it out of a fairway bunker? It very much depends on the situation, so let's not say black and white yes you should, no you shouldn’t. You've really got to get out there onto the golf course and assess the quality of the fairway bunker, the size of the lip of the fairway bunker the quality of the lie within the fairway bunker and the distance you've got to go to the flag. If it’s a long way than a quite wider fairway with a low level lip and a good lie all of those things line up together maybe it's time to start using a fairway wood from a fairway bunker.

Now the purpose of the fairway wood from that bunker is to generate distance, you should try and hit the ball out there as far as you can but you need to have those conditions, because if you put a big lip in the way where's that ball going to go? It just goes straight forwards, it hits the lip and you are back in the bunker. So you need to get all those positions right, low lip long distance good lie. Then play the ball from just slightly ahead of center, don’t play it too far forwards you will probably hit the sand first. Play it just forward ahead of center a little bit of body weight on the left side as you’re coming down into the golf ball and try and take some sand but after the golf ball, different from a normal green side bunker shot, green side bunker shot would be splashing the sand two inches behind the ball, the ball comes out in a cushion of sand.

You try that on a fairway bunker the sand slows the club down kills it for distance. So we want to try and take the ball and then the sand afterwards effectively like taking a divot on the fairway, so it's almost going to be a little bit of a plunge forwards, so the ball is back from a normal fairway wood position body weight is going left side as we swing down, punch down try and take the sand after the ball and if we can punch it down there that ball has come out low and shooting forwards, but I'd have to be aware if there was a lip more than a foot or two high in front of me that ball would hit the lip and come back. So you can play a fairway wood from a fairway bunker but you've got to choose the right time and the right place.