no more bad bunker play!

The following Golf tip is for all of you out there who are frightened of green side bunkers. One of the most common mistakes that I see from most golfers when hitting a bunker shot is that they fail to make a complete shoulder turn during the back swing. This will give you the power needed to extract yourself from the dreaded sand. If you allow yourself to swing freely with light grip pressure and a full shoulder turn, you must then let the club fall back down to the ball using only gravity to get there without trying to hit at the ball. The set up for most common sand shots is to open your stance slightly toward your target, play the ball slightly forward in your stance, and open the face of your sand wedge. Taking a normal swing, turn your shoulders fully and make a good rhythmic downswing making contact with the sand first approximately two inches behind the ball. Make sure that you follow through with your swing. Once you get comfortable with the method, you can adjust the amount of the back swing needed for different distances to the pin. The short bunker shot requires a slightly shorter back swing. There are lots of ways to play bunker shots depending on the condition of the sand, but if you try this simple method, I believe that your sand play will improve dramatically.