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The soft lob shot over a bunker is always a desired shot to master amongst many players, professional or amateur. It requires supreme skill and precision to get the ball high into the air, clear the bunker and land softly next to the pin or intended target.

Its a shot we see quite a lot of the PGA Tour execute because even when there isnt a bunker in the way, the players need to get the ball on the green and stop it as fast as possible due to the quick undulating greens they need to negotiate.

Imagine yourself stood greenside on the 18th hole needing an up and down from behind the bunker to a well-protected flag to shoot your career lowest round. What do you do? Start by opening the club face up at address and take a slightly weaker than normal grip. This will prevent your hands releasing through the impact zone therefore helping the club maintain its loft.

Players with a weaker grip will potentially find this shot easier to handle because it will enable them to keep the club face open thus encouraging the higher shot, as this positioning of the hands would rarely cause an over rotation which would lead to de-lofting the club and pulling the ball left.

Once you have opened the club face up and taken a weaker grip, you then need to re-adjust your alignment because once the face has been opened it is now pointing to the right of your intended target. Your feet should be left of parallel to the target so your extra lofted wedge is pointing at the target – this is very much like hitting a bunker shot. The swing should then move parallel to your feet so the club is approaching the ball from an out to in swing path. This working in conjunction with your face angle will encourage lots of back spin and a soft landing on the green from a high shot.

However, this shot is a high risk one so does need to some due care and attention on the practice range to build confidence in playing it.

Players with a naturally strong grip can also play this shot to a very high standard but the difficulty level vastly increases. A player with a strong grip will come through impact with more active and aggressive hands to straighten up or close the club face to the swing path at impact which is not a requirement for the soft lob shot.

When a player with a strong grip sets the club face with more loft and makes the necessary adjusts with alignment for the correct and most accurate swing, they must be extremely wary that the swing will require very little or no wrist movement through the ball or the club face will point parallel to their feet subsequently ending in the shot going long and left without any extra height or soft landing.

Fat shots occur when the club hits the turf before the ball resulting in a very poor connection leading to the resulting shot not reaching its intended target. The grip type of a golfer is unlikely to cause a poor strike on a golf ball, the poor strikes are often caused by swing path. Weak grips in particular will help keep the club face open so maximum loft can be achieved at impact provided the swing path and angle into the ball are good.

The weaker grip will slow the hand release into the ball to enable the club face to stay open as it strikes the ball. If the ball goes too far it is because too much velocity has been put into the swing causing the ball to leave the club faster than anticipated.