You have heard names of different kinds of games. Certainly, you have also heard about the golf game. Golf is generally played by an elite class of people. Not everyone is aware of the rules or ways of playing it.
Sometimes even the best of the best players face an uncomfortable situation while playing golf. The most common among them is sand bunker shot or hitting out of the bunker. It may seem easy in the paper, but golfers make mistakes, lose their confidence and spoil their posture during this challenge.
To be a solid bunker player, one needs to adapt to play in any situation.
However, no need to be afraid of it. I will be giving you tips on how to hit out of the bunker. It will be easier while I explain everything, but before that, a brief about golf and the origin of it is given below.
However, no need to be afraid of it. I will be giving you tips on how to hit out of the bunker. It will be easier while I explain everything, but before that, a brief about golf and the origin of it is given below.
What is Golf?
A game where ball and club are used to play the game is golf. Generally, different kinds of clubs are used to hit balls by players. Balls are hit into a series of holes within a few strokes. This game does not need any standard area to play. The game is played coping up with different areas which are the critical part.
Golf is played with the arrangement of 18 holes in progression, but it may have 9 holes for recreational courses. Every hole must have a tee box to start from. A cup or hole which is 4.25 inches in diameter contain by a putting green. There are also other types of land like rough, fairway, various hazards and sand traps (bunkers).
Origin of Golf
Although it is still not clear about the source of the golf game, Scotland is the origin of modern day golf. Till now since the Middle ages, golf was developed in Scotland. Likewise, the game gained popularity internationally in the late 19th century. Then it was spread to the UK and US.
What is ‘Hitting Out of Bunker’?
A standard bunker is known as pot bunker. Compared to the normal bunker, it has a slant face which is slightly inclined with normal sand. It has a very slanted face. On this account, players get scared imagining the huge wall of grass and how he’s going to hit.
In this case of hitting the shot, you have to be careful. Your ball has to come vertically to the club face. Then lands softly, and it will slowly run towards the hole.
Setup is the basic of golf. In all lob and bunker shots, it has to be right in comparison to the setup of the club. It has to be made sure that the loft of the club is proper.
Accordingly, just note a few points for that:
- Keep track of how much high up in the air you can get your ball.
- Drop the club in a way so that the edge of it remains directed to the target. It will create a loft.
- Make the bunker shot parallel with your feet position.
Open Clubface
Keep the face of the club open while you are going for the regular full swing grip. The thing golfers do most of the time is that they rotate their club in a way to keep the clubface open when the clubface is square.
As a result, the problem is that the club remains closed during the impact instead of open. To solve the problem while you are gripping, keep the clubface open in a way that grooves are directed to your left big toe. It will keep your clubface open while you are swinging and you will not rotate.
Cupping of Wrist
You need to cut the left wrist to let the clubface open during the backswing. It is meant that the outside of the left-hand knuckles should be pointed to the left forearm. Normally, golfers keep their wrist flat to keep the clubface square, but when you are cupping your wrists, it keeps the clubface open.
Effect
It is known to us that the club does not hit the ball at first but hits the sand. It implies “the critical point in time” and that is different from other shot. While you are downswing, don’t close the clubface by turning over your hand. It will make the main edge to reach the sand and dive too profoundly into it.
However, you will need the bounce of the club and the rear of the sole to contact with the sand.
To clasp and try the ball take a little divot and off the sand is the main thing. Imagine that your right-hand palm is underneath the club handle and hitting the ball out of the bunker. You might not have released the club in the right way if your palm gets over the handle of the club.
Directed to the Top
While you are practicing your swing, do not keep your clubface turned away from the target. Keep it directed towards your target. It is a unique position of clubface other than all other golf swing.
Make sure the clubface is positioned in such a way that it is open and you have your left wrist cupped.
Release
Do not let your weight to fall backward. Keep the clubface open to complete the swing in a nice balanced posture. If the face of the club is still on the right of the shaft, check it by yourself. You have released the clubface in the wrong way if it is on the left side of the shaft.
Different Sand State
It is very hard to get the club dive underneath the ball when the sand is clustered from the rain or sand is wet. Other than that, on different occasions, the sand can be soft letting the edge of the club to dive into the sand, and it will slow down the swing.
Similarly, with a lower bounce, the club will slice through the thick landscape for firmer sand conditions.
However, what do you understand by a low bounce? A club with a trailing edge which is slightly higher than the primary edge is called the low-bounce club. If you don’t have one, make a point to keep the face of the club closed but down while you swing. It will let your main edge somewhat nearer to the ground.
Consider using the method according to the sand’s state next time when you are going to hit over the bunker. Whatever may happen, you can figure out how to overcome those challenging bunker shot whether it is rainy or sunny.
Best Way to Hit a Bunker Shot
The challenges which are faced during the bunker shots are tough. To overcome those and hit your best chance is the most challenging part.
Some tips which will lead you to swing your best bunker shots are:
The Shots are About Setup
An accurate setup can establish the framework for successfully hitting bunker shots. Before you go establishing your club for the bunker shot, remember that the outcome will be the evaluation of a penalty. Therefore, you need to hover the club on the surface before you are going to hit the ball.
Apart from those, just maintaining these three stages while you are going for the bunker shots will earn you the best one:
- Before you tenderly dive your feet to the sand, widen the position of your feet than your shoulder-width apart. It will urge you to take sand behind the ball and will balance your position.
- Keep the little ball a bit forward away from the middle of your position. It will let you to raise the shot out of the sand and to hit the ball on the upswing.
- Just look for a spot around 1 an half to 2 inches away backward from the ball while you keep your clubface open. That is when the club will go into the sand.
These tips will help you with the setup which is the most critical part. It will let you overcome all the challenges while you are hitting out the sand. The moment you have achieved this appropriate setup, nothing can stop you to go a step closer to hit out of the bunker.
Swing
As everything is done setting up, try to maintain the speed of the backswing with the standard swing through the ball. Before letting the ball to hit off the face of the club, dig a little into the sand. It will provide more excellent performance and higher shot.
Furthermore, for the best bunker shots, practicing is a fundamental piece of structure comfort. If you find the proper position and swing which will make you to accomplish your ideal result, control your stroke otherwise you will end up in the sand on the course.
Downhill Bunker Shot
Downhill bunker shot makes things more challenging than ever. However, there are techniques to overcome these.
Circumstance
Your ball went down to a downhill slope and came to a rest. It is a challenging shot for the golfers as you have to match swinging with the landscape. It also needs sand to take behind the ball to raise the chance.
If you don’t take enough sand behind the ball or if your swing is off the plane, a chunk of shot will be still in the bunker.
To maintain the result, it’s vital to reproduce the circumstance in the next practice range session to build up your confidence and comfort to apply this shot next time.
- Keep the ball just at the center of your body with a wider position.
- Your shoulder has to be parallel with the slope of the downhill.
- Select a spot around a foot behind the ball, then dive the club within the spot; it will enable you to raise the ball out of the bunker and into the air.
- With the standard swing, keep up with speed through the shot and into the finish.
- On the off chance that the shot is done effectively, the ball will land delicately onto the surface and pitch out of the bunker.
Do’s/Don’t’s
There are some rules you should follow up and some acts you need to avoid while playing the bunker shot.
During Releasing (Do)
Often golfers ask how long behind the ball need to hit in the sand, and the answer of it always remains the same. If you can figure out the correct position where to hit the sand precisely, which is an inch or two behind the ball, you do not need to ask the question ever again.
To accomplish that solidity, you may require some swing changes and setup. To keep the clubhead gets going skipping and faster through the sand to the right place like the nail is hammered not with your arm but with your wrist, discharge your wrist edge quickly and early.
Then get the shaft in a vertical position before hitting. Imagine you are extending a rope 2 feet off the ground and 3 feet before you. As you rehinge, the head of the club misses it. It is called narrow swing.
During Releasing (Don’t)
You are misapplying force if you are struggling to hit the shot on the sand. You may think that you are swinging quickly by surging the handle to the aim, but you are just slowing down the head of the club. You are just hit the sand earlier, and that’s called a wide swing.
Setting (Do)
Setup of the bunker shot is quite standard such as open position, open clubface, and ball forward. Actually, there is more of it than you think like keeping the spine slant to the left head over the ball and shoulder level throughout the swing.
Golfers sometimes tend to make contact with the sand with the neck of the club. You can set up square to the aim by this way, but keep the face open to bounce the shaft vertically.
Setting (Don’t)
Golfers think that their weight should be forward, yet they do it incorrectly. They harden their left arm and move hips towards the aim. It forces your head to move backward and sets the shoulders at a precarious point.
You are setting the head of the club to crash while you move to head back with your left shoulder higher than your right.
Swing Back (Do)
It is where you hit the sand in a spot by keeping up the situation of clubhead comparison to the ball, specifically above it. Keep about 60 percent of your weight on your left side while swinging.
After that turn your shoulder and hip during pivoting the head of the club up as fast as you can, it will be easy to speed up with your wrists if you keep your arms soft. It’s like you’re making a swinging over from inside a telephone stall and make a little reverse pivot.
Swing Back (Don’t)
Often the golfers think that creating wide and big swing of the arms means to speed up the bunker shot. That’s a mistake. What they do is just haul their head back behind the ball which doesn’t create enough speed.
These matters we have discussed previously that the clubhead is hinged slowly when the handle is moved instead. For this situation, your weight moves to your back leg restoring the club while your head remain behind the ball.
Finally
In bunker shot, you’re deliberately hitting behind the ball and pushing the sand toward the green which moves the ball out of the bunker and up. You can hit somewhere in the range of 1 to 4 inches just back of the ball. You should shoot the ball out onto the putting surface if you take a major swing.
The troublesome for those golfers who have started playing by getting the strength to make a long swing and hesitant to skull the ball over the green. They regularly decelerate or neglect to complete their swing, and don’t produce enough clubhead speed to get away from the fortification in one shot.
Then again, a standard length of bunker shot is around 20 yards dialing the clubface open and setup as depicted before holding the club toward the best end of the grasp. Next, dive feet around an inch into the sand.
This will bring down your focal point of gravity and guarantees that the clubhead will enter the sand someplace behind the ball. Try not to hold down as that will change your CG and make you bound to hit the ball first.
On the contrary, be confident to swing the club in light of the fact that by diving your feet into the sand, you’re guaranteed of hitting the sand first. Remain home on your front side. Then pound the sand underneath the ball with the trailing edge by quickening through to a shoulder-tallness wrap up.
Our Final Thoughts
The absolute difficult shots we will look on the course originate from bunkers. Having realized how to hit these shots will give us the most obvious opportunity to spare a low score. You’ll be making sandiness like the masters by pursuing these tips.
