Increase Swing Speed for More Spin on Sand Shots - Golf Tip (Video) - by Pete Styles
Increase Swing Speed for More Spin on Sand Shots - Golf Tip (Video) - by Pete Styles

If you're playing your bunker shots out on the golf course with a bit more confidence now. You're splashing the ball out quite confidently onto the green most times, but you're not actually getting the ball to spin. You're not getting enough control on your shots. Here's a great way to think about increasing in the back spin and the playability of those tough bunker shots.

So often the problem in the bunker is that there's too much sand caught between the golf ball and the club face and therefore the ball doesn’t really see enough of what the club face is actually doing how lofted it is, or how grooved it is, and there's a big collection of sand on the face and that just dumps the ball onto the green almost like its plugged and the ball will come out, but it won't come out with any great spin and the land on the green will roll on, and you won't like you got enough control. So the way to play a bunker shot with a bit more spin is actually to take a bit of less sand and make sure the club is nicely accelerating through the ball so we just splash the ball out nicely with a good bit of sand rather than digging too much sand out and dumping the ball onto the green. So when you setup to your bunker shot played with a nice open face, played with a plenty of loft probably your sand wedge or your loft wedge, aiming your body and your feet quite a long way left to keep that face open, but square to target, and then play no more than 2 inches of sand. If you're gouging out 4, 5, 6 inches of sand behind the ball that sand gets stuck between facing the ball, the ball doesn’t see what the face look like and t just dumps onto the green. So, play 2 inches of sand with a nice accelerating stroke, so a nice bit of wrist action to keep the swing path quite steep. Drop it on the back of the ball with the nice follow through and just like you zip underneath the ball no more than 2 inches of sand. You might feel it taking less sand actually encourages the ball to go further that's maybe just a sign that you were over hitting your bunker shots so there's too much power, too much sand. So now we're taking a bit less sand, we can get away with a bit less power as long as we're accelerating through the ball that will keep the ball spinning. If there's ever a feeling of decelerating and dumping the ball onto the edge of the green that won't spin. Spend some time out on the practice green contemplating, taking the less sand with more loft and more acceleration and just see how that flies a bit, little bit higher and gets able to check a little bit more on those greenside bunker shots that need more spin.
2013-09-16

If you're playing your bunker shots out on the golf course with a bit more confidence now. You're splashing the ball out quite confidently onto the green most times, but you're not actually getting the ball to spin. You're not getting enough control on your shots. Here's a great way to think about increasing in the back spin and the playability of those tough bunker shots.

So often the problem in the bunker is that there's too much sand caught between the golf ball and the club face and therefore the ball doesn’t really see enough of what the club face is actually doing how lofted it is, or how grooved it is, and there's a big collection of sand on the face and that just dumps the ball onto the green almost like its plugged and the ball will come out, but it won't come out with any great spin and the land on the green will roll on, and you won't like you got enough control.

So the way to play a bunker shot with a bit more spin is actually to take a bit of less sand and make sure the club is nicely accelerating through the ball so we just splash the ball out nicely with a good bit of sand rather than digging too much sand out and dumping the ball onto the green. So when you setup to your bunker shot played with a nice open face, played with a plenty of loft probably your sand wedge or your loft wedge, aiming your body and your feet quite a long way left to keep that face open, but square to target, and then play no more than 2 inches of sand. If you're gouging out 4, 5, 6 inches of sand behind the ball that sand gets stuck between facing the ball, the ball doesn’t see what the face look like and t just dumps onto the green.

So, play 2 inches of sand with a nice accelerating stroke, so a nice bit of wrist action to keep the swing path quite steep. Drop it on the back of the ball with the nice follow through and just like you zip underneath the ball no more than 2 inches of sand. You might feel it taking less sand actually encourages the ball to go further that's maybe just a sign that you were over hitting your bunker shots so there's too much power, too much sand. So now we're taking a bit less sand, we can get away with a bit less power as long as we're accelerating through the ball that will keep the ball spinning.

If there's ever a feeling of decelerating and dumping the ball onto the edge of the green that won't spin. Spend some time out on the practice green contemplating, taking the less sand with more loft and more acceleration and just see how that flies a bit, little bit higher and gets able to check a little bit more on those greenside bunker shots that need more spin.