00:00Hi, I'm Dan Grieve and I've teamed up with Adidas Golf to help three lucky Golf Monthly readers improve their short game. Let's get started.
00:12Right, Richard, great to have you here in the bunker.
00:14Thanks very much.
00:15Tell me about your bunker play. You're saying you're playing off 26 and you don't like the bunkers?
00:20No, I either end up staying in the bunker or thinning it way over the bag.
00:25Okay, not a good combination.
00:26No.
00:26Right, can I just watch you at two shots here and see what's going on?
00:29I'm giving you a nice light. We're going for this pin over here.
00:31Okay.
00:38That's the heavy one leaving the bunker, yeah?
00:40Yeah.
00:42Again.
00:47And there's a thin one.
00:49That wasn't perfectly done for camera, by the way.
00:51That was, that was, that's sort of typically the shots you get.
00:55Yeah.
00:55Okay, right. Stand this side.
00:58Okay. Two very different shots, but the same fault.
01:01Okay, so really for you, your setup isn't where it needs to be.
01:06So you're not, you're not creating the platform that you need to play good bunker shots.
01:11Bunker shots really for me are 90% setup, 10% swing.
01:13And your setup is quite narrow.
01:16Yeah.
01:16And you've actually got the majority of your weight on your right side.
01:19I know it's quite a tall lip, this.
01:21Yeah.
01:21But your brain's saying, I've got to get back to try and get this thing up.
01:24Yeah.
01:24And as you're coming down, you're leaning back a bit.
01:26There's quite a lot of sort of right hand here.
01:27And you're just hitting way back on it.
01:29But sometimes you'll actually lean back even more and you'll hit up on it and get that ball first.
01:34So I think if we get your setup correct, I think the whole thing will just chain me out much better.
01:39Okay.
01:39So I'm going to set up this one.
01:40I'm going to put my footprints in the sand.
01:41You're going to stand in my footprints and you're going to tell me what you feel.
01:43Okay.
01:44So I'll put a line there for the club face as well.
01:48I'll dig them in.
01:50So there we go.
01:51So come and stand.
01:52Put your right foot there.
01:55And your left foot there.
01:57And then put your club behind the ball.
01:59And then open the face on that line.
02:01I'm just going to make a couple of other little tweaks before you tell me what you feel.
02:04I want your pelvis to come forward a bit more.
02:07A bit more.
02:07There we go.
02:08Okay.
02:09Hang on.
02:09Right.
02:09And then I don't want that shaft to lean too much.
02:12Do you want it open?
02:12Open.
02:13Open shaft there.
02:14Let's have a look at your foot.
02:15Hips forward again.
02:16They've come back.
02:17Right.
02:18Now that looks really good.
02:19Yeah.
02:19It probably feels very different.
02:20Feels weird.
02:21Tell me what can you feel is different.
02:23Hands are low.
02:24Lower hands.
02:25And the weight's definitely on the left.
02:27More on the left.
02:27Yeah.
02:28What about distance from the ball?
02:29It's further away.
02:30Further away.
02:31Okay.
02:31Which helps you get lower hands.
02:32Yeah.
02:32But my eyes are almost over the ball.
02:34Okay.
02:35Yeah.
02:35You're more over it.
02:36So what you've got there.
02:37You've got a setup that hopefully feels like you're less likely to move around to.
02:41Yes.
02:41You feel like you've got a bit more rooting down.
02:43Yeah.
02:43Okay.
02:43Great.
02:44Now while we're going to concentrate on the swing here.
02:47Keep your pressure here at all times.
02:48Yeah.
02:49Take a back swing.
02:50And I want you to feel like you're turning this right side and actually getting a bit
02:53of a turn there.
02:54Okay.
02:54Really turning here.
02:56Keep your weight here as I say.
02:57Now as you come down.
02:58You must keep your weight forward.
02:59Now come down.
03:01The end of the club swing and release.
03:02And I want you to focus on your chest turning and finishing somewhere like here.
03:07Yeah.
03:07Can you get there directly?
03:08Yeah.
03:08Just about.
03:08The back's going to allow you.
03:09But you can see you've kept your weight here at all times.
03:11Okay.
03:12So that looks good.
03:12Yeah.
03:13So let's not worry too much about getting the perfect shot.
03:15Let's just focus on can we just get some stability in your legs.
03:19Okay.
03:21And that's great.
03:21Let's hit one from there.
03:26Very, very good shot.
03:27How did that feel?
03:28Much better.
03:29You look a lot more stable.
03:31Yeah.
03:31A lot more stable.
03:34I mean for you, if you can just get it out and two putt, your handicap's coming down,
03:37isn't it?
03:37Yeah.
03:38Yeah.
03:40And again.
03:41It's further away from the ball.
03:43Don't get too open.
03:44You're aiming a bit too far left there actually.
03:46So aim a little bit more at the flag.
03:47That's really good.
03:50Pelvis forward more.
03:52Fine.
03:56Well now that is world class.
04:00Okay.
04:00You moved your chest better on that one than the previous one.
04:02And it had some spin.
04:03And it stopped.
04:04It stopped really quickly.
04:05Yeah.
04:05So that was a proper bunker shot.
04:07Yeah.
04:07It didn't kind of just get out and run.
04:09That came out with height and spin.
04:11Yeah.
04:11And really we just got you set up.
04:13Yeah.
04:13Yeah.
04:13Feels good, right?
04:17It does.
04:17Long shots like that.
04:18It does.
04:21Right.
04:21And again.
04:21If I can do that every time, I'll be happy.
04:22Well, let's see if we can do two in a row.
04:23Here we go.
04:24So.
04:26Pelvis forward.
04:27Hands back a little bit.
04:28Open the face.
04:29Right.
04:29Pelvis forward a bit more.
04:30Come on.
04:31Forward.
04:31Right.
04:32Keep it forward.
04:32Turn your chest.
04:33Very good.
04:38Well done.
04:40That's fantastic, isn't it?
04:42I'm going to give you one extra thing.
04:43I'm not pushing it.
04:44Come this side.
04:47So setup's transformed.
04:49Body movement is transformed.
04:51Can you do one extra thing, which is just make sure as you come through that the loft stays
04:55on the club face a bit more?
04:56You did it quite well on the nice high one you hit.
04:58The other two, it's turned over.
04:59See how the club's turned over?
05:00Okay.
05:00A bit like you might do that in a full swing.
05:02Yeah.
05:02But, you know, in short game, you've really got to make sure that loft stays on this way.
05:07And that's with the hands?
05:08It's with the hands.
05:09When the chest moves more, it's going to help you do that.
05:12But, yeah, just feel like the, don't overthink it.
05:14Get the club face looking back at you.
05:15Yeah.
05:16And let your instinct do it.
05:17Okay.
05:22Nice and wide again.
05:24Pelvis forward.
05:25That's good.
05:26So as you're coming through, it's going more like that.
05:29Yeah.
05:30See?
05:30Not that way.
05:31Yeah.
05:31Okay.
05:31As you turn your chest.
05:41Now that's much better.
05:43Heightened spin.
05:44Yeah.
05:45You've got some awareness of that.
05:46Yeah.
05:47Now as it comes through, if you do that, you see the loft and bounce stays on.
05:49Yeah.
05:49And that's how the ball gets out of the bunker.
05:51It's how you work the sand.
05:52The sand goes under the ball or the sand lifts the ball out of the bunker.
05:55Yeah.
05:55When your face turns over it, you see how it will dig in.
05:59Yeah.
05:59And it won't project the sand high enough to get the ball out.
06:01Yeah.
06:02And the big difference is I'm not thinking about where am I hitting the ball.
06:05No.
06:05Because I'm set up right for it now.
06:07Good.
06:07Whereas not.
06:08Normally you'll be thinking I'm the inches behind.
06:09I'm the inches behind.
06:10Where do I need to hit?
06:11Yeah.
06:11You don't need to worry about any of that stuff.
06:12I never look at the sand behind the ball.
06:14Yeah.
06:15Never think of that.
06:16Most good players would never think of that.
06:19Just trust it.
06:20From that setup, if you're releasing the club properly, you're turning properly, you've
06:22got your weight sufficiently forward, the club will just bottom out one to two inches
06:26before.
06:26Yeah.
06:27You know, if I try and hit two inches before, I'll hit four inches before.
06:30You know, it kind of just comes back.
06:31So, yeah.
06:31Just look at the ball.
06:36Perfect.
06:38Genuinely, I could not play it any better than that.
06:40Did you see the spin on the pick's egg?
06:42That's the spin rate.
06:44Really gone up.
06:45That means you can play that to a short-sided pin and you can actually control it and get
06:50some spin.
06:51So, yeah, you've just got to get those concepts.
06:52It's all about getting world-class basics.
06:54There's no reason you, of 26, can't be world-class over the ball.
06:57Yeah.
06:57Okay?
06:58There's no reason at all.
06:59And you can see there, just by getting the setup right, how it's chain-reacting in terms
07:01of how you move and you're hitting better bunker shots.
07:04Brilliant.
07:04I'll leave you to practice that.
07:05Okay?
07:06Thanks very much.
07:06Great pleasure.
07:07Cheers.
07:07Cheers.
07:08So, before I came here today, my short game was a bit of a lottery.
07:12The occasional good shot, but lots of duffs and lots of fins.
07:18I asked specifically to work on the bunker shots today and that was fantastic.
07:22You know, the focus on how to set up right and let the swing take care of itself was
07:32really, really helpful.
07:33So, even on Saturday this week, I took three shots to get out of a bunker and the third
07:39shot was thinned right over the back of the green.
07:41It just ruins your whole round.
07:44And I really had no idea what I was doing wrong.
07:49So, being able to reliably now, hopefully, get the ball out of the bunker and get it into
07:55play is going to make a huge difference to my rounds.
07:59The real benefit of spending time with Dan is getting the feel for what a good setup feels
08:05like, so watching the videos, hearing what he tells other people is great, but actually
08:11feeling it for real and then experiencing the impact of getting it right is just so much
08:17better for the memory.
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