Tips On Bunker Drills

Golf Monthly

In this video, top 50 coach Alex Elliott demonstrates fives easy drills to help you get out of the sand and close to the flag every time.  ► Video shot on location at Infinitum Golf Resort, host of the DP World Tour Qualifying School.

Transcript

00:00i want to give you the confidence to get out the bunker first time every time so i'm going to share

00:05with you my five top tips to help you master your bunker shots now there are five we all learn

00:11differently we all improve differently so make sure you stick around for all five because one

00:15could just be the answer for you first things first we've got to have good foundations right

00:21so follow these real simple steps now i'm going to show you this from the player cam perspective

00:26because i think you can get a real good sense of what i'm showing you here i want you to open the

00:31club face and then take your hold so your club face is open relative to you but your grip is

00:37actually the normal grip you would take on every single shot then take a nice wide stance i like

00:43to dig my feet into the sand as i do this because it can move under your feet a little bit so you

00:49can see there my stance is just wider than my shoulder width apart my ball position is a club

00:54bed inside my left heel and the final point and for me probably the most important point here

00:59to help get that loft point into target just sit down and put the weight left

01:04you are now ready to hit a bunker shot and let's use these drills now

01:14so the first drill is hit the line really easy to set up all i've used is my alignment sticks i've

01:21got one directly on where the gold ball is and then a golf ball back of that i've made an impression

01:27to create the two lines just throw your alignment stick out of the way so the essential part of this

01:32drill is learning to control the bottom of your arc and having a focus point we don't actually

01:38want to hit the ball in the sand we just want the sand to cushion the ball onto the green so really

01:44nice and simple use the forward line to make sure you've got your correct ball position from our

01:48foundations and then simply just create three practice swings trying to hit the back line

01:54and then move into your shot if you go a bit too far back learn from it and improve it's okay

02:00here you go about to put me to the test there and see if i can do it okay good that one

02:09okay that was a little bit far back just reset myself again and really focus on that back line

02:14and now you're ready to go so learn where your bottom of the arc is

02:19and build it into your shot look at the speed we have got at the bottom

02:26one of my favorites that one

02:32now number two in our list is about you creating speed with the correct release okay i call this

02:38okay i call this striking the match so i've drawn the sand here effectively a match box i've got a

02:46line in the middle and that middle line is going to be where we're trying to strike so that point

02:51before where the golf ball is where we're trying to hit into the sand now nice and simple we have

02:56to understand that if we're striking a match right and we had a match we'd have speed right where we

03:01contacted the box and off we need the same down the golf ball in order to cushion that ball onto

03:08the green so i want you to do it like this now i am terribly right-handed so i want you to do this

03:15one-handed with both hands we're not going to hit a golf ball to begin with so hit those points get

03:20that correct grip with your face open but your grip normal to you put both hands on to start

03:26with if you want and then take your right hand off what i'm focusing on is creating this hitting

03:33the line with speed and the loft pointing back at me then have a go at it right-handed i'm actually

03:40worse with this hand than that hand and same again the momentum of the club allows me to create speed

03:48in this direction not like we would in a full shot so learn that feeling if you need

03:55more than two goes to find out what feels best for you go for that

03:58and then have a go at striking one away trying to emulate the exact same

04:07and you can feel like you're striking that match right at the bottom

04:10so the two ball drill quick easy simple let's do it so nice and simple place one golf ball

04:19and give yourself a good lie we're learning to play our bunker shots right in the sand the second

04:25one all you're going to use it to do is create an impression just behind a golf ball behind so

04:31press it into the sand take it out and pop it in your pocket if you're confident enough

04:36just to hit one away afterwards without an impression in there so i'm making all the same

04:41address points as before but all i'm looking at and i i would stress this as well i focus

04:46on that dot in the sand not the ball the dot in the sand quick easy and simple

04:59so so far we've learned to have some speed we've got the correct

05:03setup and now we've got the release the final thing and this drill is great for

05:07learning to keep the loft on in the bunker we need loft to get the club to glide so really

05:13nice and simple have a look at this too put your club into the sand and get a nice healthy chunk

05:19of sand on that face the idea here is you're learning to keep that sand on the club face

05:25for as long as possible through that backswing and only throw it off over your shoulder if you're

05:31throwing it off early you're manipulating the face far too much so have a few goes get that

05:37feeling and then just work the same exact feelings into your shot because you've got

05:43everything you need now to help improve your bunker tips so remember the speed remember

05:50the loft remember the setup and let us know down in the comments what is your favorite drill

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