How Should I Play My Golf Bunker Shots If I Have No Follow Through (Video) - by Pete Styles
How Should I Play My Golf Bunker Shots If I Have No Follow Through (Video) - by Pete Styles

So here is a tip for you about playing a bunker shot where you’re right up against the lip and you’ve got no follow through. So how should you play this shot? Shut your eyes and hope. No, I was more serious than that. We can play this bunker shot, but it is going to be difficult. There’s no two ways about this, you’re not in an easy situation. You may consider playing it sideways, taking a penalty drop within the rules to go back and re-hit your shot or drop it back into the bunker. But if you decide that you want to play this shot, we’ve got a couple of things to consider. First thing in this position that I’m in very uneven on the slope, so I’ve got to really work hard on getting my balance for the position that I’m in. Once I’ve got my balance it’s important I don’t try and move much. I’m just going to stay really steady, steady with the head, steady with the legs and just make a really committed swing. I’m not going to try and follow through simply because the hill won’t allow me to. I’m going to keep plenty of loft on the clubface that’s going to get the ball up in the air nice and steeply. But actually how am I going to play with this lack of follow through. What I’m going to here is, grip the club nice and firmly to start with, nice committed full back swing. But as I come in towards the golf ball, I’m actually going to let go off the club just before I get to impact. It’s going to feel like I’m barely holding on to this golf club. And that’s pretty much injury prevention.

The last thing I want to be doing is holding on to this golf club as it decelerates from a 100 mile an hour, maybe not 100 mile an hour here but 50 mile and down to zero with me holding on to it. This is sort of wrist injury and forearm injury prevention here. So I’m going to swing nice and firmly into the ball and feel like I let go off the club just as it impacts the golf ball. The club will slow down a certain extent because I’m hitting into the sand, but it’s going to slow down very quickly, very brutally. And I’ll be honest with you; I don’t want to be holding the end of this. So as I anchor myself into the addressed position, one foot down one foot out the bunker. That feels relatively well balanced, nice big full committed swing, focused on keeping my body very still and hitting down. And then I don’t want to be holding onto this too tightly as I hit and slow down. So lots of loft, lots of power, and almost feel like I let go. And you can see there the ball has found its way out. Now look where the club followed through to. It barely moved. The club came in here, hit straight into the wall, I held on to it with a couple of fingers and the ball popped up. Now, that might not look to you like it’s the world’s best bunker shot. But I’m out from a very difficult position, I didn’t need to take a penalty shot and at least I’m putting a couple of putts, maybe I make a boogie but I’m away from this hole having found it very difficult position, and I’ve not made my score worse. So in that situation, maintain your balance, commit to the shot but just before you hit it, feel like your hands come off the golf club so you don’t hurt yourself hitting that shot, where you have no follow through in a bunker. 2014-11-11

So here is a tip for you about playing a bunker shot where you’re right up against the lip and you’ve got no follow through. So how should you play this shot? Shut your eyes and hope. No, I was more serious than that. We can play this bunker shot, but it is going to be difficult. There’s no two ways about this, you’re not in an easy situation. You may consider playing it sideways, taking a penalty drop within the rules to go back and re-hit your shot or drop it back into the bunker. But if you decide that you want to play this shot, we’ve got a couple of things to consider. First thing in this position that I’m in very uneven on the slope, so I’ve got to really work hard on getting my balance for the position that I’m in. Once I’ve got my balance it’s important I don’t try and move much. I’m just going to stay really steady, steady with the head, steady with the legs and just make a really committed swing. I’m not going to try and follow through simply because the hill won’t allow me to. I’m going to keep plenty of loft on the clubface that’s going to get the ball up in the air nice and steeply. But actually how am I going to play with this lack of follow through. What I’m going to here is, grip the club nice and firmly to start with, nice committed full back swing. But as I come in towards the golf ball, I’m actually going to let go off the club just before I get to impact. It’s going to feel like I’m barely holding on to this golf club. And that’s pretty much injury prevention.

The last thing I want to be doing is holding on to this golf club as it decelerates from a 100 mile an hour, maybe not 100 mile an hour here but 50 mile and down to zero with me holding on to it. This is sort of wrist injury and forearm injury prevention here. So I’m going to swing nice and firmly into the ball and feel like I let go off the club just as it impacts the golf ball. The club will slow down a certain extent because I’m hitting into the sand, but it’s going to slow down very quickly, very brutally. And I’ll be honest with you; I don’t want to be holding the end of this.

So as I anchor myself into the addressed position, one foot down one foot out the bunker. That feels relatively well balanced, nice big full committed swing, focused on keeping my body very still and hitting down. And then I don’t want to be holding onto this too tightly as I hit and slow down. So lots of loft, lots of power, and almost feel like I let go. And you can see there the ball has found its way out. Now look where the club followed through to. It barely moved. The club came in here, hit straight into the wall, I held on to it with a couple of fingers and the ball popped up. Now, that might not look to you like it’s the world’s best bunker shot. But I’m out from a very difficult position, I didn’t need to take a penalty shot and at least I’m putting a couple of putts, maybe I make a boogie but I’m away from this hole having found it very difficult position, and I’ve not made my score worse. So in that situation, maintain your balance, commit to the shot but just before you hit it, feel like your hands come off the golf club so you don’t hurt yourself hitting that shot, where you have no follow through in a bunker.