Many amateur golfers struggle hitting their ball out of the bunker. The nature of the sand and the position of the ball have a great deal to do with successfully extricating yourself from this hazard. I consider myself a slightly above average sand player because of my ability to get my ball on the green when required. I do struggle a bit with fairway bunkers, but that is a story for another day. For now, there are three easy ways to get your ball out of the bunker. This is not a trick and you do not have to change your swing, only where you set up. Lets take a look deeper into this important topic.

As indicated earlier, set up on the ball is key to hitting the ball out of the bunker with spin or no spin. Each is a valuable skill depending on where the pin is in relation to your ball in the sand. Here is a great video explaining what I mean.

As you can see, he used the same up for each shot. I want to expand on that a bit. First, you stance has to be open. You will need to experiment on how open, for me, my trail foot points to 12 o’clock and my lead foot points to 10 o’clock. I bend my knees a fair bit and my clubhead is lined up just forward of the trail foot. Additionally, I open the clubface so it points between 1 and 2 o’clock in relation to the ball. As you can see, my set up is quite open, but it works very will with what was explained in the video. To determine your optimal positioning with your stance and clubface to hit the ball out of the bunker.

Knowing the three possible positions for hitting the ball out of the bunker to create spin or not is important. You never know when you will need each skill and therefore some practice might be a great idea. Regardless of what you decide, having his knowledge should be benefical to your game.

I am a grateful golfer! See you on the links!