Golf Tips for Long Greenside Bunker Shots

One of the most difficult shots in golf is the long greenside bunker shot. If you look right here I am faced with a shot of about 50 feet, and why it is difficult is that what most golfers try to do is they take their sand wedge or their lob wedge out and try to hit a high shot and carry it all the way back to the hole. Most of the time they are unsuccessful with the shot.

What I would recommend is take a pitching wedge or a 9-iron and think of a shot that is going to roll to the hole instead of fly to the hole. The reason you want to take a pitching wedge or a 9-iron is that you have less loft and it will not shoot the ball in the air up as high.

What I am going to do is set up to it and I am going to grip the club and open it up a little bit to utilize the bounce of the club so that it will not dig. But the key to it is that I am going to take a regular backswing like on a greenside bunker shot, hinging my wrists so that I can have a little steeper angle coming down into the sand and the key is to have a low finish. That low finish is going to allow the ball to come out low and roll to the hole. So I am going to set up, ball position is about center in my stance. I am going to dig my feet in slightly, open up my pitching wedge just a little bit, hinge my wrists and a low finish. If you watch this shot it was very low, oh I almost made that. It came out very low and rolled to the hole.

So the next time you go out and practice, practice long greenside bunker shots with a pitching wedge or 9-iron, hinging it, hitting down into the sand, low finish, allow it to roll to the hole.