Why do you fat your bunker shots is a question that a lot of golfers ask me — a lot of golfers should ask because it’s a fairly common fault to happen in a bunker. First let’s understand what a fat shot is; a fat shot is kind of a slang term that we use for a club that hits the ground too much before the golf ball. And a bunker is often quite easy to see that because we’ll see the sand splash out from an area way behind the golf ball; we’ll have too much sand on the club face before we hit the ball, the club is travelling too slowly all adds up to the ball not getting out of the bunker or certainly not going far enough if it does come out of the bunker.

So that’s a fat bunker shot; very common in bunkers. For sort of one main reason and it’s the reason that the golfer is trying to help the ball out, so they’re setting up in a decent position but then they’re leaning back trying to scoop the ball; trying desperately to help it come out over the lip. You can imagine in this scenario with a big lip out in front of me and the flag up here, a lot of golfers would lean back and try and help the ball out. All the body weight goes to the back leg, they're trying to open the loft and hit the ball up in the air and it’s actually counter productive because all we do is hit too much sand first.

So an answer to how do I stop hitting the golf ball fat from a bunker really is trusting your equipments; trusting the loft on your sand wedge and the bounce on your sand wedge. Trusting that if you hit down in front of the golf ball — sorry if you hit down, two inches behind the golf ball but carry on your swing down in front and you have your body weight in front t of the golf ball you will be striking the ball better. You’ll be following through better. And although you’ll still take plenty of sand, it won’t be so fat; it won’t be far behind the ball. That will splash the ball out with a little bit more speed and therefore the ball should get the required height and the required distance.