Different Rules For Playing Golf Shots From Bunkers (Video) - Lesson by PGA Pro Pete Styles
Different Rules For Playing Golf Shots From Bunkers (Video) - Lesson by PGA Pro Pete Styles

Often when we’re playing bunker shots we would say there is fairly big similarities to playing a chip shot. You know, you're looking at a shot that goes roughly the same distance, we’re playing roughly with the same club, we’re playing the shot that goes high, lands on the green and stops; but actually in terms of what your left arm does for a chip shot and a bunk shot, they do comfortably different jobs. They do not do the same job at all. Setup position might look the same, backswing position might look the same, but through the ball and particularly through the impact area the left arm is very different for bunker shots and chip shots.

For a chip shot the left arm will keep accelerating, keep the hands in front of the club head, hit down on the ball and keep accelerating all the way through to this sort of height. Bunker shot we want the left arm to do a slightly different job. We want the left arm to come towards the ball and then actively slow down to allow the club head to release faster. So we often talk about accelerating through the ball and following through. Yes, that’s the case for the club head, but not always for the left arm. In fact if you accelerate your left arm too much into the ball you'll never be able to release the club head and in a bunker shot we want the club head to release. We want the left arm to slow down to allow plenty of loft and plenty of bounce to be presented on the leading edge of that wedge. If the left arm leads too much we’re going to hit down close to the face, hit down into the ground too much with no bounce. So allowing the left arm to slow down and really firing with the right hand, the right hand is the thing that accelerates the club head through. That’s going to create lots of bounce. The club will hit the ground before the ball, hit the sand here, loads of bounce accelerating through. Now the left arm will keeps moving, but will have a released action here rather than a held off action. So when we’re hitting bunker shots it is a different left arm action compared to a chip shot. And if can understand the similarities between chip and the bunkers, but also understand the differences between chip and the bunker is particularly how the left arm works, you'll hit a lot better chip shots and a lot better bunker shots as well. 2016-10-03

Often when we’re playing bunker shots we would say there is fairly big similarities to playing a chip shot. You know, you're looking at a shot that goes roughly the same distance, we’re playing roughly with the same club, we’re playing the shot that goes high, lands on the green and stops; but actually in terms of what your left arm does for a chip shot and a bunk shot, they do comfortably different jobs. They do not do the same job at all. Setup position might look the same, backswing position might look the same, but through the ball and particularly through the impact area the left arm is very different for bunker shots and chip shots.

For a chip shot the left arm will keep accelerating, keep the hands in front of the club head, hit down on the ball and keep accelerating all the way through to this sort of height. Bunker shot we want the left arm to do a slightly different job. We want the left arm to come towards the ball and then actively slow down to allow the club head to release faster. So we often talk about accelerating through the ball and following through. Yes, that’s the case for the club head, but not always for the left arm.

In fact if you accelerate your left arm too much into the ball you'll never be able to release the club head and in a bunker shot we want the club head to release. We want the left arm to slow down to allow plenty of loft and plenty of bounce to be presented on the leading edge of that wedge. If the left arm leads too much we’re going to hit down close to the face, hit down into the ground too much with no bounce.

So allowing the left arm to slow down and really firing with the right hand, the right hand is the thing that accelerates the club head through. That’s going to create lots of bounce. The club will hit the ground before the ball, hit the sand here, loads of bounce accelerating through. Now the left arm will keeps moving, but will have a released action here rather than a held off action. So when we’re hitting bunker shots it is a different left arm action compared to a chip shot. And if can understand the similarities between chip and the bunkers, but also understand the differences between chip and the bunker is particularly how the left arm works, you'll hit a lot better chip shots and a lot better bunker shots as well.