Fried Egg Bunker Lie

Video Transcript

The “fried egg” lie. This is a very scary shot. The “fried egg” normally occurs when you hit a very high shot, usually with a pitching wedge, 9-iron, 8-iron, 7-iron, the ball has a lot of spin on it and it comes down and buries into the sand trap. When it does, it ends up looking like a “fried egg”, it makes a pit and the ball is sitting usually pretty much in the center. Now the problem with this shot is we’re going to have to excavate quite a bit of sand to get underneath that golf ball. The difference from a normal “buried lie shot” is we have to hit this a little bit harder. What I do is play the ball very far back in my stance. I lean the shaft forward and I toe the club in quite a bit, that causes the sand wedge to dig. You can also play this shot with a 9-iron or a pitching wedge and be very successful. One of the things to remember is when the ball comes out it’s going to have no spin on it; it’s going to come out with some run. When it hits the green it’s going to roll, so you have to adjust for that. 1) Ball back; 2) Hands forward; 3) Grip quite tight, because we don’t want that club to twist when it hits into the sand; and 4) Drive the club down. The follow-through is really not important, I’m going to drive the club down into the sand and if I end up with a short follow-through, that’s fine. You don’t need a long follow-through. So ball back, toe it in, you can toe it in quite a bit. We’re going to aim at the area just at the back of the “fried egg” and sort of power down underneath that golf ball. Now when the ball comes out, it will run a little bit further but if you set correctly, you can play this shot quite easily.

Jim  McLean
Jim McLean Golf School
Doral Golf Resort and Spa
4400 NW 87th Avenue
Miami, FL 33178
Tel: 800-72-DORAL

Jim McLean runs the Jim McLean Golf Schools, considered by some the world's finest. He is listed as one of Golf Magazine's Top 100 Teachers and Golf Digest's #3 instructor in the world.

• Instructor Overview
• Videos
• Biography
• Philosophy
• School Info
• Powerline
• Biodynamics
• Juniors
• Staff
• Employment
• Extended Staff
• Teaching
• 12 Reasons