Why do it? great golfers seem to have no problems with a deep bunker and a high lip, while she strikes fear into so many others? The answer is not talent so much as technique. Once you understand a few key principles, removing even the most intimidating lip becomes much more manageable.
Here are five keys to getting out of a deep greenside bunker.
1. Trust in the club
A lob wedge (60°), sand wedge (56°) or gap wedge (50°) has enough loft to clear all the extreme lips. These clubs are designed with a lot of loft and bounce – the rounded sole allows the club to glide through the sand rather than dig in. Trust that the loft does its job; your movement just needs to let it work.
2. Don’t try to get up
Because these wedges are designed to throw the ball, resist the instinct to help in the air. Don’t let the lip scare you into walking away and away from the target. Keep moving towards the target and finish on your lead foot. This allows the club to move through the sand and gives the loft a chance to send the sand – and the ball – up and onto the green.
3. Hit the sand
The ability to hit the sand and roll it to the green is essential to escaping any bunker, especially a deep pot bunker. A great way to train this is to take practice swings without a ball, focusing on splashing sand outside the bunker and on the green.
I improved my own bunker game dramatically by practicing this way at PGA National with Mike Adams, hitting the sand – and even the little shells in it. This teaches you the proper motion to throw the sand instead of reacting to the ball.
4. Use some speed
Once you can hit the sand consistently out of the bunker, you probably need a full and very fast swing to get the ball out and out. That may be counterintuitive when the ball only needs to travel a short distance, but the sand acts as a buffer between the clubface and the ball, so speed is essential.
Depending on your swing strength and speed, a full swing at maximum speed is often what gives the ball enough energy to generate the necessary height and distance to clear the bunker wall.
5. Open the face
If the lip is really severe, the lob wedge may be your only option. Remember that you still need enough distance to clear the lip – not enough to get the ball in the air.
Players with high clubhead speeds can also take advantage of the face opening to add even more loft. It’s a balancing act: you need enough height to clear the lip, but enough distance to get out of the bunker.
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