BEST BUNKER TIPS - How to Play Bunkers - Hard or Soft sand

Full Transcript 

oh geez you know you found us sometimes your bunker shots can look just like that well this is a case for quite a few of the members here at Canterbury golf club they find again the bunkers and the fear of death starts running through the head thinking how do we get out they do the fitting it over the back of the green thinning into the face you name it they've got it and it doesn't need to be that difficult in this week's training we're gonna show you how to overcome all this stuff so you can get that ball popping up out of bunker and onto the green nice and easily we're going to cover how do you play wet sand the horrible hard stuff you know maybe you've got stunned in your bunkers or no Sun in your bunkers how do you play those horrible hardpan lies and obviously how do you play the soft sand but more importantly we're also going to go into the basic technique and I'm going to show you one drill one exercise that will kind of mean that you don't have to remember a lot of stuff so you can actually repeat this on a regular basis before we do though before we get into this week's video if you are new to the channel and this is one of your first videos from me please consider subscribing if you press that little bell button Nexus that the subscribe button you can receive videos just like this one every week so I can come help you improve your game so what do we do with bunkers so let me just quickly rate this area here which I've destroyed bunkers well let's start by les showing you what a bunker shot really looks like I said a couple of shots here this is a vicious downhill shot to the flag very difficult to get it close but that's a very typical starbug shot pops it up in the air rolls out downhill to the flags fading rule to keep this close but how do you go about playing that particular shot well very simply what we're gonna need to do here is this we need to understand that we need a certain type of connection with the sand when we're coming through the bunker what we need to do is when to use the back part of the golf club not the front part now you may have heard this before but the question is how do you do all this stuff so we want in reality this club gliding through the sand as much as we possibly can we do not want the leading edge digging in so what I mean by that is this to many golfers when they're playing bunker shots they're using the leading edge and they are digging into the Sun like this that's not going to get the ball out of the bunker what we need to do if you look at the back of this golf club here we need to use this bit we need to use the whole bit we're going to lay it completely flat on the ground when we're setting apps like this we want to late completely flat on the ground then what we do is we get much much lower we lower the handle of the golf club why do we do all this stuff because what we're trying to do is we're trying to get a glide through the sand right we want this Club gliding we don't want it attacking through the sin so we're going to lower the handle we're gonna flatten the coat we add loads and loads of loft onto this now the ball position when we do all this is way forward and our stance here so it's opposite our left heel the handle of the golf club as you can see here is actually positioned we're backwards because that's the only way what we can actually get the loft on if I start to move this handle first of all forwards we start to deal off the club we don't want that the other thing is watch this if the handle is too high I can get the loft on either and I can't get the back of this golf club on the sand so we lower the handle now I can get in a position where I can glide through this sound slide the club right underneath it so let's have a look at this in action again so we get ourselves set here we're going to lower the handle get ourselves in position here and then just simply slide the club through the shot and look at the elevation on that okay much much much better so what drill could you do so you don't have to remember all this stuff well I got missed a four in here and I'm gonna play a bunker now with a four on why the hell would I play a bunker shot with a 4-iron well this is a great way for you to kind of in a sense get into a practice bunker and start to learn or ultimately the only way you can play a bunker shot with a 4-iron is if we have a look at this see if you look at the loft and this is absolutely no loft on this floor on here if I set up like this the ball's going straight into the bank so now what you need to do is this take a full run go to your practice bunker and think like let your body be a wonderful problem solver it's got to work out how are you going to add loft to this four iron well watch this let's just do this well there's loft well look what's happened to the shaft now if I if you start here and I add loft what ever done I've learned the shaft backwards that's the first thing can I have the shaft like this hmm not really cuz still loads of loft on there so I have to lower - yeah so I've lowered the shaft here and now I've got the shaft almost laying flat open well if you do this now look what you're going to have to do with your posture you're going to have to lower yourself into the sand so that we can get into this position here alright that's the next thing now when people do this for the first time and it add loft on look at that the heel of the golf club now is lined up to the ball it's never gonna work so look at this we've got to move the face this way now straight away your bob your body's problem solving here it's trying to get low it's trying to square that face it's trying to lay flat look at that and that becomes the perfect setup almost the bunkers here it's an exaggerated form obviously but what it will do is it will teach you what you need to do things to look out for and people do this they do lower themselves down as a sound but they often sit back and they start to waft at it that's not what we're after when you're sitting down make sure you're still in the shot you're not starting back here as you lower yourself you're still in the shot so let's have a look at this in action here it's going to be interesting on a on a downhill lie but let's ever so I'm gonna slide this ball Rhine underneath that ball that's not bad that's not bad so it's an exaggerated version but like what you could see hopefully exactly what I'm doing here to get myself in its that fantastic position which you need for bunkers so let's look at this again from this angle so we got there's my four iron look at this I don't want to be in that position do I've got no chance from there so watch this the balls miles forward I'm laying this Club wide open this you only way I'm laying flat on the ground I'm having to get lower to do it up here there's no chance to look at the loft on the face still I'm here now from there look I've got to lower the handle even more look how that I've got what I've got to do here to get that face line completely flat now from there all I'm gonna do now is slide this club on the ball but there's one thing we can do and I helped visualize this I'm going to draw a box around this ball here okay and what we're gonna do is is the box is about let's say a couple of inches either side it's this the balls in the middle of a box it's two inches either side of the ball and what we're going to do as we're laying this down I want to visualize taking that entire box out sliding it out what we're not doing is going shop and taking a big plunge out neither we're just taking the front part of the box out as we try to lift the ball up in the air none of those things will lay in this club completely flat and we're gonna try and slide this club underneath the bowler with a 4-iron for now

so let's have a look at it with the sand wedge now so all we're doing with drawing a box around and now we've got the feels with a four I remember those feels are designed to exaggerate the motion you've got to get low you've got to get the handler to lay that loft open otherwise you've got not right so now you can transfer those feels now to the sandwich lay it flat get the ball forward in in your stance here and look at you know I put a ball there but you know what to start with you might just want to draw a box that's maybe sit five inches wide and start to practice just gliding that sand wedge end in a sense taking that box out and getting a sense of what that feels like initially before you introduce the golf ball then when you've done that a few times and you've got a sense of gliding then what you do just start here in a few shots you know get on to the practice ground build some confidence up I'm getting low here I'm visualizing this Club you know coming it through here exiting nice and shallow nice and simple and the ball just kind of just beautifully pops up almost into the hole so I mentioned what do you do when it's hard pan and what's the difference soft lies by the way powdery lies just simply do this get very very low keep there as much balance as possible on when it's compact like this I'll stand on this for a second here really really really hard surfaces all you do is make a very very slight alteration but not much it's very very subtle you just don't want the bouncer activating too much if it's really hard it could bounce off the surface hit the leading edge we don't really want that so what we do instead is we make a subtle alteration don't change bowl position or anything like that maybe position a bit more weight onto your lead foot and then same position nice and low but we're going to have a little bit more intention now just to come rather than imagine gliding this way we're going to glide slightly more down so you'll hear a bit more of a hood we don't want to do that though okay there's me tell any what to do and I've got a duct it that Leslie though did okay so a bit more of a so into the stand but and maybe not that much I gave back there we go almost goes in okay so that's basically it you can equip more attack into the sand when it's a little bit firmer but still get the same set up so let's summarize what have we done well when you're setting up two bunkers grab yourself that for Ryan get it like this get yourself set and this ultimately if you want to lay this flat up and you're going to have to do this you're gonna have to angle it backwards here you're gonna have to lower the shaft you have to lower your body all the things that you know are necessary with this let your body be an incredible problem solver and when it solves the problem of this it will provide the necessary feelings to hit this and that is it and then obviously make those slight changes with with the hype analyze by coming slightly down maybe not to as much as I did there and it's as simple as that so balls nice and forward waits a bit favoring the left side we're going to lower ourselves into the sand here lower the handle get the law facing and then glide that ball

out of that bunker I've got another couple of bunch of videos that you might want to have a look at as well in this top right hand corner but if you enjoyed the video give it a thumbs up and maybe share it with somebody else who's struggling with bunker play and of course if you're new to the channel and this is one of your first videos press that subscribe button and the Bell and I look forward to seeing you next week but until next week have a great golfing week