Pete Finch – PGA Teaching Pro

One of the most important things when you're trying to correct that bunker shank shot, is what your path is doing throughout impact. Now depending on the type of shot that you're trying to play, this example is just a greenside splash shot, we need to be making sure that the path is traveling slightly out to in, in relation to target line. So we have the target, which is the flag, and we have target line.

Now, target line determines where you want this ball to be traveling. This does not determine what you want the club head to be doing, and it does not determine what you want the club face to be doing. In general terms – and this can change, and this can adapt depending on the type of shot that you want to play. You want your path to be traveling in this direction – so from out to in, over the target line. Now when that happens, it allows you to get slightly steep on the downswing, meaning it's easy to enter the sand, come underneath the ball and lift it out on that nice carpet of sand. But, if you're swinging in this direction, from out to in, with the club traveling in that direction, obviously if the club face is set up as normal, then this bunker shot is going to be traveling off to the left-hand side of the target. So what that means is you need to open up the club, and you want the club to be opened out over the target line, to the right-hand side.

Now, a very simple way of looking at this is if the club is traveling off to the left-hand side, and the club face remains open to that path and slightly open to the target line as well, this ball will set out all the way in between them, and it should go down towards that flag. Now, once you've practiced this for a while, you can find that you may need to slightly close the club face a little bit more, not have it so open, you may need to open it up a little bit more as well. If you ask any of the top professionals when they're in a bunker shot by how many degrees they open up their sand wedge when they're playing a shot, by how many degrees they're opening their body, generally none of them will know. It's just natural after they've practiced it for a while. But by using these lines, and using that understanding, you should be able to find what you're best path is. It should be slightly out to in, and what your best club face angle is, as well.

And once you to get all these working in combination, then hopefully you should find that shank shot becomes a little bit more of a thing of the past.