You're Correct!

You may have been there....set up to the shot out of the bunker, made a swing and....the ball is left in the bunker! You may have seen other players do this and either get really frustrated or walk straight up to the ball, have another swing and do the same thing.

Rather than get mad or move straight to the next shot, get curious as to why the ball didnt get out of the bunker. You can use the sand in order to diagnose the outcome of the shot. Did you hit too far behind the ball, did you not hit enough sand, what did the strike sound like?... and so on.

The two main reasons for leaving the ball in the bunker is either hitting too much sand before the ball, or hitting no sand before the ball. If you hit the sand too far behind the ball you are likely to get the ball in the air but the ball wont travel far enough to escape the bunker. The strike will also feel really heavy due to taking too much sand before the ball. If you take no sand prior to hitting the golf ball, you will thin the ball into the lip of the bunker. You will also hear the club make contact with the ball with no thud sound of the sand made.

From a good set up position with the club face open, you want to make contact with the sand a couple of inches behind the ball, taking a dollar sized amount of sand out from underneath the ball in order to hit those high, soft landing bunker shots. A common fault amongst amateur golfers is to try and lift the ball by hanging back on their rear leg. Keep your weight forward, hitting down and turning through the shot.

You may have got to your ball in the bunker to find a horrible lie, and this is the luck element of the game. Bunkers are designed to be hazards, therefore to expect a perfect lie every time is only going to upset you when you find a bad lie. From a poor lie in the bunker, your main goal should be to get the ball out of the bunker.

Having the incorrect wedges for your game can be detrimental to your bunker play. If the bounce angle does not suit your technique then you could struggle to play the desired shots from the sand. However, if you are consistently leaving the ball in the bunker, your contact with the sand is either too far before or after the ball.

The quality of the lie and the sand will dictate what you can achieve with the golf ball. You will find it difficult to hit a high spinning bunker shot from a poor lie in the bunker. The quality of the sand can limit your capabilities but it should not stop you from escaping the ball from the bunker. Work on your sand contact in order to become a better bunker player.