Ground Your Club in the Sand for this Drill – You Won’t Be Penalized

Become a master in the bunker by using this simple drill in the sand where grounding your club is encouraged

By Sabrina Naccarato

There are a couple of sacred rules in golf that are slightly more well known than others. One, in particular, is not grounding or touching the sand with your club in the bunker before you hit the ball.

Well, we’re going to be a little reckless and throw out the rule book (sorry USGA) and share a drill that encourages you to ground your club. Yes, I know, I know this is just a drill, and you are allowed to touch the sand while practicing, but it’s fun to be a little rebellious, right?

 

Anyway, back to the drill. Why do you need to mess with the sand to begin with? Isn’t the point to get the ball away from the sand?

As Vice President of Instruction, Nick Clearwater, explains in the video, golfers who struggle with contact in bunkers can benefit from drawing a line right behind the ball and trying to hit the line at impact. Doing this helps golfers take just the right amount of sand to get the ball up and out of the bunker. Practicing without a ball a few times can help ingrain that feeling.

Once you add a ball, open the face of your club, make a full swing and ensure you’re hitting that line in the sand just before the ball. If you do all three, you’ll see your ball end up in a pretty good place on the green.

When you take this new grooving sand shot out with you on the course, the rule book is back in play, and you can’t draw your trusty line in the sand, but you can still imagine it’s there. And if you can successfully do that, you’re going to have one solid bunker game.

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