All right guys in this video i'm going to show you how to escape the bunker i'm going to start off with a very basic method of getting your golf ball out of the bunker if that is your main priority then.
We're going to look at more of an advanced stage. And if you want to skip straight to that hit this time stamp and you can jump much more to the advanced level that's going to be more based on trying to get the ball much closer to the hole to get up. And down more often [Music] so if you're the golfer that's petrified when your ball goes in the sand and it might take you four or five times to get out you might hit behind and dust it in front you might hit the lip you might even if you get it out you might thin it all the way through the back and into another hazard well this first part is really important to you first thing is getting this ball out of the sand getting it onto the green don't even worry about the flag just. Yet the first thing we need is loft use something like a 56 degree sand wedge. Or even more loft more like a 60 degree lob wedge loft is gonna really help us if we can have a club that's got an angle it's gonna help get underneath the golf ball. And pop it out up onto the green even on the sand wedge shot it's not a terrible idea just to slightly open the club face and what that means is if this is dead straight this front edge of the golf club is dead straight all we're going to do is slightly turn it to the right. And then.
Grip it what that does it adds even more loft to the face of the golf club that's going to really help us pop the ball out the next.
Thing we're going to do we want to get a nice base. So shuffle your feet into the ground get low and have this ball in line more with the front of your stance that's where we're looking to have the ball position when we come to hit the golf ball we're actually not looking to hit the ball we want to hit behind the golf ball now i'm going to draw a line here just. For illustration purposes we want to hit the sand about two inches behind the golf ball and that pillow of sand effectively splashes the golf ball out onto the green you don't have to try and lift it you're going to hit the sand. And make sure you're hit with speed we're going to make sure that club continues through the golf shot big no-nos we do not want to see your club hit the sand. And stop no do not do that we don't want to see you come into here. And lean back and try and scoop the golf ball up and the last point i want to get across as well do not worry about the flag like sometimes the flag might be on the side of the bunker that's harder to get out if all you're trying to do is get out of the sand to get even somewhere close to the green. Or on the green go for the easiest shot option for example here look at the left hand side the bank is much much smaller i don't have to get anywhere over as much hill. Or height and i can look at not worrying about the flag shuffling my feet in i'm going to hit a couple of inches behind the sand. And then.
Splash it out see the sand the sun came firing out of the bunker there my club carried on past almost the same point as i went back granted it's nowhere near the flag but my next.
Shot i'm putting the next.
Shot isn't in the bunker again and if you're just trying to escape sand get it out the hazard that is very very important. So that's where my ball was that's where the line was. And notice i've splashed the sand level with the line i've taken this much sand and that's what helped the golf ball elevate and get onto the green so before we come on to advanced level i want to talk a little practice routine that you can do now truth be told how many times you practice bunker shots probably very rarely because it's not that exciting sometimes the golf course doesn't have the facility to do. So so if you go out on your own you have a nice quiet afternoon maybe throw five or six balls in a bunker and practice but also practice this little trick draw a line in the sand and start from over here and your goal is here is to get the club to enter at the line. So do a fairly big swing. And get your club to hit the line go all the way along hitting the line hitting the line just notice there i'm making sure the sand carries on through i'm not slowing down there's loads of sand coming out the bunker but i'm getting really good at hitting that line if you notice that you're hitting too far behind the line you're probably leaving too much weight on the right hand side you're not hitting the line at all you're possibly not low enough if you're hitting the line too far beyond it means you're moving your weight too far to the left it's a really good trick and a great little practice to help you become much much better in the sand now sometimes when you hear the commentators on tv talk about when the ball goes in the bunkers for some of the best players in the world and say oh it's not too bad because actually they don't mind the ball going in the bunker because there's some level of consistency. And they're really good in bunkers it's much better than being on the side of the bunker bank or in the rough we need to get you to that level now when we're looking at the advanced level we're thinking about getting the ball out is a given hopefully we're now trying to get much closer to the hole. So there's a couple of things you need to be aware of first off have a couple of different options of club choice but we talked about just using the sand wedge a minute ago now you might want to experiment with using your lob wedge more height get the ball to stop quicker much easier to get out of much higher face bunker shots that's what we're going to play now then.
We've got to think about the shot in particular. So i'm going to go to the flag this time more rather than going to the left when i'm in this bunker situation here i'm yes looking at the bank what height do i need to get over the lip. But then.
I'm thinking where do i want the ball to land how is it going to react when it hits the green am i going to play a a splashy shot where it splashes out. And then.
Rolls down to the hole i'm gonna play one where i try and nip it a little bit closer to the ball and almost get the ball to spin and stop they're things that you can experiment with if you want to play the splashy shot you're looking at hitting more sand behind the golf ball. And using that pillow of sand to splash the ball out typically don't get as much spin if you want one which much more spin you're trying to hit slightly closer to the ball which is higher risk you need more club head speed. And you need more loft so those little experiments you can play with. And again if you practice and get really good at those you'll start to be able to pitch your different shots so for me here i like to play much more of a splashy type golf shot i like to hit quite a lot of sand i'm not going to get the ball to spin i'm gonna get it to roll down the hill. And closer to the flag i'm allowing the break and the contours to get it closer to the hole another thing as well i'll change when i'm setting up to the golf ball here i'm gonna open the face much more than we talked about in level one i'm gonna almost have this face flat to the ground pretty much to give me loads and loads a lot therefore. i'm gonna require more speed i'm gonna shuffle my feet in really low and i'm gonna get myself lower to the ground i'm almost feeling like my legs are flexed my chest is slightly lower because i want to make sure i hit down into the sand. And keep the loft on the club face pointing up to the sky all the way through the shot so we're looking at where i want the ball to land we thought about technique and then.
We've just got to pitch that really nice shot think about where it's going to land don't worry about the kind of hazards. Or trying to get out the bunker we're thinking more of the positives i want the ball to land just on that top edge roll down to the flag i'm going to open the face i'm going to put it with a nice little splash shot oh all right guys not my closest granted. But it's not bad so when you go in there pick a point have a little bit more range of options of what club you might go for not always a sandwich go with a lob wedge and then.
Practice it and get really good at getting out the bunkers and getting really close every time thanks for watching.
