Check Green’s Break Before Lining Up Bunker Shots, Golf (Video) - by Pete Styles
Check Green’s Break Before Lining Up Bunker Shots, Golf (Video) - by Pete Styles

One strange thing you might see sometimes on the PGA Tour when you are watching on the TV is that players are reading the green when they are not actually on the green. They would be looking at the consoles or the slopes and seeing how that’s going to affect the ball, yet they are not on the green yet. And this just shows a slightly different mindset between the professional and the club golfer. And you particularly notice this when you are in a bunker. So if you go in a bunker the mindset is I have just got to get this thing out on the green and the sheer panic and terror and just get the ball on the putting surface, but a professional or a better player is convinced that they are going to get the ball on the putting surface, what they are looking to try and do is get this thing as close as possible and even hole it. So the player might be in the bunker looking at the green and might even come out of the bunker way up the putting surface reading the greens looking for the surfaces on the slopes. Then when they approach the bunker they are not just hitting the ball straight for the flag they might be aiming it left or right off target landing it on or letting it feed down to the flag. Like is say it’s a subtle mind shift, mind change where we are trying to actually whole the shot rather than just get the thing on the green.

The one thing you might also notice is when you get good at taking bunker shots and you are clipping the right amount of sand, if you have got the face open and you are swinging from out to in across your body, you are imparting a little bit of side spin on that ball. So as it lands on the green it would normally spin a little bit to the right hand side maybe when you get really good and proficient at striking the ball you can factor that into your green reading, land the ball a little bit or left of where it would normally land, it will spin down and then take the break down towards the flag, but hopefully if you can read the greens from greens side chips and green side bunker shots you will be getting the ball closer and closer each time.

 2012-07-16

One strange thing you might see sometimes on the PGA Tour when you are watching on the TV is that players are reading the green when they are not actually on the green. They would be looking at the consoles or the slopes and seeing how that’s going to affect the ball, yet they are not on the green yet. And this just shows a slightly different mindset between the professional and the club golfer. And you particularly notice this when you are in a bunker. So if you go in a bunker the mindset is I have just got to get this thing out on the green and the sheer panic and terror and just get the ball on the putting surface, but a professional or a better player is convinced that they are going to get the ball on the putting surface, what they are looking to try and do is get this thing as close as possible and even hole it. So the player might be in the bunker looking at the green and might even come out of the bunker way up the putting surface reading the greens looking for the surfaces on the slopes. Then when they approach the bunker they are not just hitting the ball straight for the flag they might be aiming it left or right off target landing it on or letting it feed down to the flag. Like is say it’s a subtle mind shift, mind change where we are trying to actually whole the shot rather than just get the thing on the green.

The one thing you might also notice is when you get good at taking bunker shots and you are clipping the right amount of sand, if you have got the face open and you are swinging from out to in across your body, you are imparting a little bit of side spin on that ball. So as it lands on the green it would normally spin a little bit to the right hand side maybe when you get really good and proficient at striking the ball you can factor that into your green reading, land the ball a little bit or left of where it would normally land, it will spin down and then take the break down towards the flag, but hopefully if you can read the greens from greens side chips and green side bunker shots you will be getting the ball closer and closer each time.