One of the most common issues my students have is getting out of the bunker. And I really feel like the problem they have is the task that their brain sees as the job to do when they’re in the bunker.
I asked him, “Do they think they’re hitting too far behind the ball or not close enough to the ball?” And they usually understand that they’re hitting too far behind the ball. So this is a simple drill, I can give you to learn to understand where you need to hit the ball.
So in the bunker, if you just draw a line, and you make a swing, and you need to land the swing in the line, if you swing to the line, and you end up hitting back here behind the line, you know that’s not going to hit a quality bunker shot.
So the first thing I want you to do as a drill, is when you draw the line walk in and make three swings. I want you to hit back here intentionally, I want you to hit on the line intentionally, and then I want to make a mark over here to the left and I want to hit over here to the left of the line.
The truth is the one where you hit up here is the one use is the swing you need to make to be a good bunker player, because if I hit this shot, and I make a divot, you notice here’s the line and here’s the middle of my divot. The low point of my divot is way out in front of where the ball was.
So, if you want to become a good bunker player, so that you can hit these shots close, you need to learn to land the club near the ball and that way you’re going to put more spin on the ball and have more predictability to how hard you need to swing to hit it close to the hole.
