50 Yard Bunker Shots

Video Transcript

We are looking here at what many people who know golf think is that hardest shot of all. It’s the greenside shot that is 40 or 60 yards to the flag, the long bunker shot. I can show you two different ways to play this shot. The first way I learned from watching Nick Faldo, and he is a good guy to learn anything from. He turned his 8-iron into a sand wedge by the simple process of opening the clubface and bringing the back edge of the club into play. Then he went and played the shot just like it was a regular green side trap shot. So he turned his 8-iron into a sand wedge. There is another way to play this shot, turn your sand wedge into an 8-iron. To do this you close the clubface down and play the ball further back in your stance, level with the right foot. Then instead of putting the normal cut spin on the ball where you slide the club under the ball, you instead trap the ball from the inside track of your swing plane and take a divot of sand after impact. It’s your choice. Turn your 8-iron into a sand wedge or your sand wedge into an 8-iron.

Denis Pugh
The Wisley
Ripley, Woking, Surrey GU23 6QU
United Kingdom
Tel: 01483 211213

Denis Pugh is creator of "The Swing Map" Teaching Theory and is Europe's most prominent golf instructor. He also taught Greg Turner, Peter O'Malley, and European PGA Tour Player of the Year Colin Montgomerie.

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