Nothing seems to give the new golfer more fits than being stuck in a sand-trap while golfing. Years ago, during a practice round Corey Pavin found himself in a trap, he calmly stepped in, took a swing and holed out. One of the spectators cried “Lucky”, so he calmly reached into his pocket, dropped another ball on the sand and proceeded to put that shot into the hole as well.

Getting up and down from the sand does not have to cause any jitters for you if you know what to do. I have only heard stories of famous sand-traps on some golf courses which give even the professionals trouble. The 17th hole of St. Andrews comes to mind, Hells Bunker looks pretty scary. Certainly, when you are confronted with a ten foot wall the prospect of making your shot go straight up will be intimidating.

Lets take a look at some strategies for getting out. There are two strategies for dealing with bunkers. With a fairway bunker the obvious choice is to get out of the bunker with maximum travel for your ball. In most cases the lip of a fairway bunker is a bit lower than a hole-side bunker. So you will want to take a club that will clear the lip of the bunker and still give you the most distance. On occasion your ball may alight in a place where it is not possible to do much more than get out and sometimes that even mean by going backward. I can hear you you saying, now you have lost me “why would you want to go backward?”

Consider, your ball sits in the sand right next to the 3′ lip, if you try to advance the ball it will hit the lip and remain in the bunker. In this case the best strategy would be to go sideways or even backwards to lose one stroke getting out and being favorably set up for your following shot. Th fellow in the video below obviously missed this part of the lesson as he takes 10 strokes before he decides that backwards is a better course of action.

So, take enough club loft to clear the edge of the bunker. Next for the fairway bunker you want to pick the ball as cleanly off the sand as you can. To insure the best chance for that to occur you should line up to the ball with the ball slightly behind the middle of your stance. This will insure that your club comes into contact with the ball before it hits the sand. As long as you hit the ball before the sand you will get most of the distance (I would venture at least 80%) for whatever club you are using. I have used as much as a 3 Wood to hit from the sand with reasonable results.

For the fairway trap that is the only thing that will change as far as alignment. Your shoulders, hips and knees should remain on the target line with just the adjustment of ball positioning being the only change you would make.

The green-side bunker is a different animal entirely. Here you are faced with °number of decisions. Club selection may vary depending on how close or how far you are from the hole. You could go from using a 64° lob wedge for something nearly up and down to a 9 iron if you are 75 yards away from the pin.  For the green-side bunker your body alignment will change to an open stance. By body alignment I mean the knees and the hips, your shoulders should always be pointed at the pin or your target.  The reason for the open alignment is to insure that the club will swing through the sand and the ball and not be inhibited or blocked by your body.

Two things real quickly.  Number one is attitude; if you landed in the sand next to the green you are close and your next shot could be “in” so remember, “Sand is my friend” is a good saying to have.  Secondly the technique and swing is always the same for a green-side bunker shot, to get more distance for your shot you may change clubs to decrease the loft and increase the distance.  Finally, a well struck sand shot will have a lot of back-spin and tend to stop unless you are above the hole so it is usually safe to aim for the shot to go straight for the pin.

 Now here is the important thing to remember sand shots are always full swing shots.  The fact that you are close to the hole makes no difference in the size or fullness of your swing.  Your distance is controlled by the loft of the club and the openness of the face.  If I need the ball to travel three yards laterally I would use a very open faced 60° lob wedge.  On the  other hand  if I needed 40 yards of carry I might use a 48° pitching wedge with a square facing alignment.  In both cases I would take a full swing into the sand expecting to hit behind the ball by an inch or two at the most and accelerate through the ball knowing that the ball was coming out with a cushion of sand to slow it down and land it softly.

How do I know that I will hit behind the ball?  For every golf shot you take  the bottom of the arc of the swing will be in the middle right? That is when the leading edge of the club is at it’s deepest point.  Knowing this, I simply line up with the ball in the center of my stance, the butt end of the club will be pointed directly at my belly button.  I know that at this point the clubhead will be burried in the sand during my downswing.  Next I want to open up my body so I don’t block the swing and to do that I simply move my target side foot back about 6″, this opens my lower body and I keep my shoulders aimed at the target.  This is the set up that I use on every sand shot, when I want to reduce the distance of lateral travel I open the face of the club as well.  I would do this for a very close shot.

A few trips to your local range will give you an opportunity to try this out.  Here is what you want to find out.  How far does the ball travel with my lob60°, sand56° and pitching48° with a square face alignment.  Next by degrees open up the face of your club you want to know how open your clubface needs to be to take the shortest (Laterally)possible shot.  In 45 minutes at the practice facility you can own 3 full swings for 3 different clubs that will give you a range of distances from 60 yards on in. 

I hope this helps you to feel comfortable with the sand.  By practicing to own a swing you can repeat it any time any where with a good degree of confidence that you will be close to the pin every time.  The ball in the center setup eliminates the fear of “flyer’s” when you know the club will be beneath the ball for every shot that you take.

Agree? Disagree?  Hit the comments below and we will talk, thanks.

Hit them straight and seldom,

Michael Brown

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