Bunker Shot from Solid Wet Sand

Video Transcript

Have you ever walked into the bunker expecting to find normal conditions and you go to sink your feet into the sand and there is no sand. It’s packed down hard or the sand might be wet and packed down. If you try your normal bunker shot where the ball is forward in your stance and the clubface is open exposing the bounce the club is going to hit off the sand behind the ball and right into the middle, sending a low shot right across the green. You can hear I got nothing but ball on that one. To hit the shot correctly, when you can feel that there is no sand underneath your feet, you want to take the bounce off and get the leading edge a little bit more exposed. So to do that, I’m going to go from this normal position, to squaring up the face up just a little bit and then moving the ball back and my hands a little forward. That will make the leading edge dig a little into the sand. It is almost looks like a chip shot. I put the ball a back in the stance, put the hands a little bit forward, square up the face a little bit, and another nice shot. Remember, the next time it feels really hard underneath your feet, hold your clubface down a little bit, put the ball a little further back in your stance, and move your hands forward. I guarantee you’ll get great results on this difficult shot.

Mike LaBauve
Kierland Golf Club
15636 N. Clubgate Drive
Scottsdale, AZ 85254
Tel: 480-922-9283

Mike LaBauve is one of the world's greatest short game instructors and teacher to LPGA phenom Grace Park. He is listed as one of Golf Magazine's Top 100 Teachers and Golf Digest's #31 instructor in the world.

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