Best Methods And Club Choice For A Long Greenside Bunker Shot - Senior Golf Tip (Video) - by Dean Butler
Best Methods And Club Choice For A Long Greenside Bunker Shot - Senior Golf Tip (Video) - by Dean Butler

Let’s talk about club choice now for these long greenside bunker shots. There’s a lot of factors to take in. The first and most important is what's the lie of the ball like? If it’s just a normal lie then we’re going to tackle that one in a minute. But if the ball is sat down, is on a down slope or buried then obviously the way to play these shots is going to be completely different. So we’re going to do this in two halves. So let’s imagine that the shot is actually the lie of the ball is very, very good and we’ve got this sort of long greenside bunker shots so let’s call it 20 yards away from the green. So you could play this with your lob wedge, you could play with your sand wedge. And we’re going to set up, remember it’s a good lie. So I want you to set up, I want you to go higher up the actual grip here and grip nice and tight with the top two figures. This is always a tip for when you’re in the bunker. This will help prevent the club face from actually closing at impact. So remember when you play all bunker shots, let’s have those to figures, the ring figure and the little figure gripping nice and tight. Remember this is a normal bunker shot, where normal bunker lie sorry for a long greenside bunker.

From here what we want to do is put the ball position fairly central and from here get your feet into the sand but don’t go to deep, by going to deep will lower you into the sand and encourage you to hit too much sand, that’s great for a greenside bunker which is next to the green but not from 20 yards, 30 yards back. So from here, let’s get ourselves into this position here, then from here we want to focus on just coming in right about an inch, an inch and a half behind the ball. So you set yourself up, set yourself up nice and square rather than open because we’ve got some carry to go here. And from here I want you focus on getting that club up, so from here push with your left arm and hinge your left wrist, get into this position from here and make sure you accelerate focusing on just one inch behind that ball. Okay so from here lets set ourselves up, swing the club back without leverage and we’ve got a nice clean strike, got plenty or carry there on that golf shot and that’s how you play that sort of bunker shot with a descent lie. But what if the lie isn’t so good, well let’s just imagine the sort of opposite lie. So the ball is now sat down a little bit. Because it’s sat down, we’re going to have to change the ball position, we’re going to have to move that ball position further back. If that ball sat down we’ve got a lot more depth for some to cover. That means we’re going to have to come in steeper. So what I would say here is to consider maybe going away from the sand wedge and maybe pulling out the pitching wedge out of your golf bag. Put the ball position further back remember we’re going to hit a lot more sand here. So if you were to use your lob wedge sand wedge yes you may well get the connection you want but you most probably won't get the distance that you’re striving for. So consider maybe taking a pitching wedge or maybe a gap wedge, look at what you’re faced with. Pull the ball position further back, we’re going to go down the grip slightly now this time, pull the ball back and by doing this, this is going to increase the angle of attack, this is going to make us go a lot more up and down. Now because you’re coming in down is much deeper we’re going to have a lot more resistance at impact. So if that club comes in steeper, that club is going to start to decelerate through the sand. So when you’re playing this shot I want you to keep the foot on what I call the gas pedal. So when you rove this ball keep the weight [Inaudible] [0:03:31] on this left-hand side, keep yourself there, pick that club with your wrist nice and steep, and attack a good maybe two inches behind the ball. Because that ball sat down, you potentially may have to get that club going to the sand like three or four inches to get down so we want lots of club head speed here. So let’s try it out, ball back, hands forward, early wrist break and that ball has really come out, lots of speed there. So we’re exploding into that sand, exploding into that sand, it’s that sand that’s throwing that ball out but there’s two different techniques from the two different lies but remember also consider the possibility of taking an extra club for that longer short. Remember you’re going to hit a lot more sand, there’s no good having the shot come out looking pretty but it’s doesn’t get there so maybe consider that extra club. But that’s how you go about playing those two different bunker shots. 2013-12-12

Let’s talk about club choice now for these long greenside bunker shots. There’s a lot of factors to take in. The first and most important is what's the lie of the ball like? If it’s just a normal lie then we’re going to tackle that one in a minute. But if the ball is sat down, is on a down slope or buried then obviously the way to play these shots is going to be completely different. So we’re going to do this in two halves. So let’s imagine that the shot is actually the lie of the ball is very, very good and we’ve got this sort of long greenside bunker shots so let’s call it 20 yards away from the green. So you could play this with your lob wedge, you could play with your sand wedge. And we’re going to set up, remember it’s a good lie. So I want you to set up, I want you to go higher up the actual grip here and grip nice and tight with the top two figures. This is always a tip for when you’re in the bunker. This will help prevent the club face from actually closing at impact. So remember when you play all bunker shots, let’s have those to figures, the ring figure and the little figure gripping nice and tight. Remember this is a normal bunker shot, where normal bunker lie sorry for a long greenside bunker.

From here what we want to do is put the ball position fairly central and from here get your feet into the sand but don’t go to deep, by going to deep will lower you into the sand and encourage you to hit too much sand, that’s great for a greenside bunker which is next to the green but not from 20 yards, 30 yards back. So from here, let’s get ourselves into this position here, then from here we want to focus on just coming in right about an inch, an inch and a half behind the ball. So you set yourself up, set yourself up nice and square rather than open because we’ve got some carry to go here. And from here I want you focus on getting that club up, so from here push with your left arm and hinge your left wrist, get into this position from here and make sure you accelerate focusing on just one inch behind that ball. Okay so from here lets set ourselves up, swing the club back without leverage and we’ve got a nice clean strike, got plenty or carry there on that golf shot and that’s how you play that sort of bunker shot with a descent lie. But what if the lie isn’t so good, well let’s just imagine the sort of opposite lie. So the ball is now sat down a little bit. Because it’s sat down, we’re going to have to change the ball position, we’re going to have to move that ball position further back. If that ball sat down we’ve got a lot more depth for some to cover. That means we’re going to have to come in steeper.

So what I would say here is to consider maybe going away from the sand wedge and maybe pulling out the pitching wedge out of your golf bag. Put the ball position further back remember we’re going to hit a lot more sand here. So if you were to use your lob wedge sand wedge yes you may well get the connection you want but you most probably won't get the distance that you’re striving for. So consider maybe taking a pitching wedge or maybe a gap wedge, look at what you’re faced with. Pull the ball position further back, we’re going to go down the grip slightly now this time, pull the ball back and by doing this, this is going to increase the angle of attack, this is going to make us go a lot more up and down. Now because you’re coming in down is much deeper we’re going to have a lot more resistance at impact. So if that club comes in steeper, that club is going to start to decelerate through the sand. So when you’re playing this shot I want you to keep the foot on what I call the gas pedal. So when you rove this ball keep the weight [Inaudible] [0:03:31] on this left-hand side, keep yourself there, pick that club with your wrist nice and steep, and attack a good maybe two inches behind the ball. Because that ball sat down, you potentially may have to get that club going to the sand like three or four inches to get down so we want lots of club head speed here. So let’s try it out, ball back, hands forward, early wrist break and that ball has really come out, lots of speed there. So we’re exploding into that sand, exploding into that sand, it’s that sand that’s throwing that ball out but there’s two different techniques from the two different lies but remember also consider the possibility of taking an extra club for that longer short. Remember you’re going to hit a lot more sand, there’s no good having the shot come out looking pretty but it’s doesn’t get there so maybe consider that extra club. But that’s how you go about playing those two different bunker shots.