How to Hit a Bunker Shot - The 5 Keys to Greenside Sand

Quick answer: A bunker shot is the one full swing in golf where you're deliberately trying to miss the ball - the club enters the sand behind it and the sand lifts the ball out. Almost all of it is decided at address: take a wide stance, squat down by bending your knees, stand about six inches further from the ball than normal, play the ball just inside your lead heel, and open the clubface so the grooves point toward your lead foot. That setup lets the bounce of the wedge slide through the sand instead of the leading edge digging into it. (Left-handers: mirror every direction in this guide.)

In this post, WhysGuy will cover:

• The five setup keys to a greenside bunker shot, and why setup matters more here than anywhere else in the swing.
• How to change your trajectory out of the sand without changing your swing.
• How to practice bunker shots when you don't have a bunker.

The bunker swing is unlike any other in the game of golf. It isn't an intuitive motion, which probably explains why so few amateurs arrive at the right technique on their own. Without the proper setup, it's exceedingly difficult to become proficient out of sand - and with it, the shot gets a lot less frightening than its reputation suggests.

How to Hit a Bunker Shot - 5 Keys

Four of the five keys below happen before you start the club back. That's not an accident: in golf, the way you set up your body at address naturally dictates the way the club swings.

1. Widen Your Stance

• Relative to a normal golf shot, you want your weight (center of mass) mostly on your lead side and a significantly wider stance. This helps keep your lower body quiet through the swing and stops the club digging with the leading edge.
• Notice in the illustration that the golfer has squatted down by bending more at the knees.
• You also want the clubface open, so the grooves point toward your lead foot. That's what lets the bounce work for you.

2. Get Low to the Ground

• On top of the changes above - weight left of center, wide stance, open face, squat down - you want your feet at least six inches further from the ball than on a normal golf shot.
• This shallows your angle of attack, which is what gets the ball up in the air quickly.
• Watch this video of Jon Rahm hitting a bunker shot with a 4-iron and notice how much he squats at address. The club changes; the setup principle doesn't.

3. Ball Position Forward of Center

• For most bunker shots, the ball should sit just inside your front heel. It can move toward the center of your stance if you're looking to hit a chunk-and-run, but it generally shouldn't change much.
• We recommend a square stance.
• Keep a neutral shaft angle at address - the butt of the club points at your belly button. That's what ensures you're using the bounce of the club rather than the leading edge.

4. Keep the Clubface Open

• Make sure you don't flip your hands over through impact. Doing so exposes the leading edge of the wedge and causes the club to dig.
• Instead of turning your hands over, feel like the clubface points at the sky through impact and into your follow-through.
• As a bonus, that feeling also keeps the upper body from stalling through impact - the most common reason a bunker shot comes up short.

5. Adjust the Face for Trajectory

• The easiest way to alter your trajectory out of the sand is to change the angle of your wedge at address - not to change your swing.
• For plugged lies, you generally want a square clubface, perpendicular to your target line. For lower trajectories, open the face slightly. For high trajectories, open the face so it points at the sky.
• As you open the clubface, you're effectively adding bounce to your wedge. The more open the face, the easier it is for the club to slide through the sand - and the less likely you are to chunk it.

Practicing Without a Bunker

The reason most golfers never get good out of sand isn't technique - it's reps. Practice bunkers are rare, and the ones that exist are usually compacted, under-filled, or occupied.

That's what the Bunker Mate is for: a portable, sand-free bunker simulator you can use at home or on the range. It won't give you the sand splash, but it does give you feedback on the part that actually goes wrong - where your club entered relative to the ball, and whether you used the bounce or the leading edge.

• Rehearse the entry point. Draw your attention to the spot an inch or two behind the ball and hit that spot, repeatedly, with no ball at all.
• Check your setup every rep. Wide, squatted, further from the ball, face open. It's the part that decays fastest between rounds.
• Then add the ball. Once the entry point is repeatable, the shot itself stops requiring courage.

Why You're Still Chunking It

• Your face is square at address. A square face means the leading edge leads, and the leading edge digs. Open it before you take your grip, not after.
• You decelerated. The sand takes far more energy out of the club than grass does. If you don't accelerate through, the ball stays in the bunker - and that's the most common bunker miss there is.
• You're too close to the ball. Standing at normal distance steepens your attack angle, which drives the club down into the sand instead of through it.
• You hit the ball first. A thinned bunker shot flies the green because you struck the ball cleanly. In sand, cleanly is wrong - you're aiming at the sand behind it.
• Your lower body is running. A wide stance and flexed knees exist to keep the low point stable. If your legs drive like a full swing, the entry point moves and the strike becomes a coin flip.

Key Takeaways

• Setup is the most important element of consistent bunker play - wide stance, squat down, weight forward, handle low, clubface open.
• Hit the sand behind the ball, not the ball, and accelerate all the way through.
• Don't let the club turn over through impact; feel the face pointing at the sky.
• Change the face angle at address, not your swing, to change trajectory.
• Use Bunker Mate to practice your bunker game anywhere - reps are the part most golfers are missing.

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