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

00:16could 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 actually

00:37the normal grip you would take on every single shot. Then take a nice wide stance I like to dig my

00:44feet into the sand as I do this because it can move under your feet a little bit so you can see

00:49there my stance is just wider than my shoulder width apart my ball position is a club head inside my left

00:55heel and the final point and for me probably the most important point here to help get that loft

01:00point into target just sit down and put the weight left you are now ready to hit a bunker shot and let's

01:07use these drills now. So the first drill is hit the line really easy to set up all I've used is my

01:20alignment sticks I've got one directly on where the goal ball is and then a golf ball back of that

01:25I've made an impression to create the two lines just throw your alignment stick out the way so the

01:31essential part of this drill is learning to control the bottom of your arc and having a focus point we

01:37don't actually want to hit the ball in the sand we just want the sand to cushion the ball onto the

01:43green so really nice and simple use the forward line to make sure you've got your correct ball position

01:48from our foundations 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 here and see if I can do it okay good that one

02:06okay 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 and build it into your shot

02:22look at the speed we have got at the bottom

02:25one of my favorites that one

02:29now number two on our list is about you creating speed with the correct release okay I call this

02:39striking the match so I've drawn the sand here effectively a match box I've got a line in the

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

02:52the golf ball is where we're trying to hit into the sand now nice and simple we have to understand

02:57that if we're striking a match right and we had a match we'd have speed right where we contacted the

03:02box and off we need the same down the golf ball in order to cushion that ball onto the green so I want

03:09you to do it like this now I am terribly right-handed so I want you to do this one-handed with both hands

03:16we're not going to hit a golf ball to begin with so hit those points get that correct grip with your

03:22face open but your grip normal to you put both hands on to start with if you want and then take your

03:28right hand off what I'm focusing on is creating this hitting the line with speed and the loft

03:36pointing back at me then have a go at it right-handed I'm actually worse with this hand than that hand

03:44and same again the momentum of the club allows me to create speed in this direction not like we would

03:52in a full shot so learn that feeling if you need more than two goes to find out what feels best for you

03:58go for that and 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

04:13the two ball drill quick easy simple let's do it so nice and simple place one golf ball and give

04:20yourself a good lie we're learning to play our bunker shots right in the sand the second one all you're

04:25going to use it to do is create an impression just behind a golf ball behind so press it into the sand

04:33take it out and pop it in your pocket if you're confident enough just to hit one away afterwards

04:38without an impression in there so i'm making all the same address points as before but all i'm looking

04:43at and i i would stress this as well i focus on that dot in the sand not the ball the dot in the sand

04:50quick easy and simple

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

05:05final thing and this drill is great for learning to keep the loft on in the bunker we need loft to get

05:11the club to glide so really nice and simple have a look at this too put your club into the sand and get a

05:18nice healthy chunk of sand on that face the idea here is you're learning to keep that sand on the

05:25club face for as long as possible through that backswing and only throw it off over your shoulder

05:31if you're throwing 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 everything you need

05:44now to help improve your bunker tips

05:49so remember the speed remember the loft remember the setup and let us know down in the comments

05:53what is your favorite drill

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