Cup It & Clip It – How Not To Hit Out of Bunkers

Alex Fisher shows how not to hit out of the bunker
The PGA Director of Instruction at The Glacier Club in Durango, Alex Fisher also teaches from November to April at the JW Marriott Wildfire Golf Club in Phoenix. alexfisherpga.com; 602-363-9800.

While players on the PGA Tour average over 50 percent in the sand save category, the majority of amateurs consider it an accomplishment just to save bogey. That may be because they think of bunkers as “traps” to escape. When I work with new students on greenside bunker shots, I can tell by their body language—tight shoulders, slouched posture—that they sense something bad is going happen.  And with all the confusing bunker techniques out there, I can understand why. But if you keep things simple, it doesn’t have to be that way.

When it comes to bunker technique, the number of options makes even my head spin. Most instructors will tell you to open your stance, pound the sand, imagine that there’s a dollar bill underneath the golf ball, make a steep outside-in swing and open the clubface. That’s a lot of changes from your full-swing setup!

With the exception of opening the clubface, I tell my students to ignore the above advice for the following reasons:

  • Instead of an open stance, I prefer my students to keep a square stance in the bunker. Opening your stance changes your ball position without realizing. It will put the ball too far back in your stance and will make it difficult to clear a steep lip.
  • The idea of imagining there’s a dollar bill underneath the ball makes no sense whatsoever. It might help you visualize how the clubhead is going to travel through the sand at impact but it’s just another thing you don’t need to consider.
  • Pounding or thumping the sand with a steep, outside-in swing is ridiculous. You have to imagine the sand in the bunker is just funny looking grass. If you were faced with a regular pitch shot off grass you wouldn’t dream of smashing the ground and digging up the sod. Instead you would typically make a shallow divot. The same approach should be taken in a bunker. The goal is to take a shallow sand divot, not to dig a trench.

Hitting a bunker shot doesn’t have to be a challenge as long as you take a simple approach. Keep your stance square but still open the club face. Cup your left wrist on the back swing to ensure that the clubface remains open.

Bunker Tips - Open Face

1. OPEN FACE: Before you take your regular full swing grip, make sure that the clubface is set open. Too often, golfers grip the golf club while the face is square and then rotate their hands so that the clubface appears to open. Problem with that is you’ll tend to rotate the face closed through impact. A good rule to follow is to set the face open so that the grooves are pointing towards your left big toe (opposite if you are a lefty) and then take your grip. This will ensure the clubface stays open throughout the swing and doesn’t rotate closed through impact.

Bunker Tips - Cup your Wrist

2. CUP YOUR WRIST:  To ensure that the clubface stays open on the backswing you have to cup your left wrist. What I mean by that is feel like the knuckles on the outside of your left hand point towards your left forearm. On a conventional shot you would want to keep your left wrist flat so that the clubface would stay square but by cupping your wrist keeps the face open.

Bunker Tips - Check the top

3. CHECK YOURSELF AT THE TOP:  A key checkpoint in your practice swing is to make sure the clubface is turned towards your target and not away from it at the top of the backswing. Again, this clubface position is unique to any other golf swing you would make. Having your left wrist still cupped and the clubface positioned like so ensures the clubface remains open.

Bunker Tips - Impact

4. MAKE AN IMPACT:  We all know the club needs to hit the sand first, not the ball. Which means the impact position—or “moment of truth”—is also unique to any other shot. On your downswing, do not allow your hands to rotate over and close the clubface; that forces the leading edge to make the initial contact with the sand and dig too deeply into it. You want the bounce of the club—the backside of the sole—to make primary contact with the sand. A key thought at impact is to try and clip the ball off the sand and take a small divot. Feel like the palm of the right hand is underneath the handle of the club and you’re trying to toss the ball out of the bunker. If that palm gets on top of the handle, you have released the club incorrectly.

Bunker Tips - Release

5. RELEASE:  Avoid letting your weight fall backwards and make sure you finish your swing in a nice balanced position with the clubface remaining open. Check to see if the clubface has remained to the right side of the shaft. If you find it on the left side you have released the club incorrectly.


This article appears in the Fall 2016 issue of Colorado AvidGolfer. Subscribe today!

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