Bunker Play, Properly

Sand traps their share of mistakes, but the greenside bunker is one of the few shots in golf where you don't actually have to hit the ball — and that changes everything.

Most society golfers approach a bunker with a familiar cocktail of tension: stiff wrists, a narrowed stance, and a determination to pick the ball cleanly off the surface. The result, reliably, is either a thinned shot that screams across the green or another bury in the sand. The fix isn't about strength or aggression. It's about understanding what the club is supposed to do.

Why golfers fear sand

Fear in a bunker almost always traces back to one thing: the instinct to help the ball into the air by scooping or lifting it. On every other shot you hit the ball first; in a greenside bunker you do the opposite. You're hitting sand, not ball, and the displaced sand carries the ball out. Once that clicks, the shot becomes far more straightforward.

The second source of fear is inconsistency. If you don't know where to enter the sand, every shot feels like a lottery. With a clear entry point — roughly two inches behind the ball — the margin for error expands considerably. You don't have to be precise; you have to be approximately right.

Setup: the three keys

Good bunker play starts before the swing. Get the setup right and the technique largely takes care of itself.

• Open your stance. Align your feet and hips left of target (for a right-handed golfer). This sets the club on an out-to-in path through impact, which produces the sliding, splashing action you're after.
• Open the clubface. Rotate the face so it points skyward before you take your grip. This increases the bounce angle and stops the leading edge from digging. The face should look like it's aiming right of target — that's correct.
• Ball position forward. Move the ball towards your front foot. This encourages a shallow, sweeping strike rather than a steep chop.

Shuffle your feet into the sand to get a stable base and feel the texture. Grip down slightly on the club to compensate for your lower position.

The splash technique

Picture a circle drawn around the ball in the sand. Your aim is to remove that circle — ball and all — and deposit it on the green. The club enters the sand about two inches behind the ball, travels underneath it, and exits a couple of inches in front.

The swing itself should be full and committed. This is where many golfers go wrong: they decelerate through impact, worried about hitting too far. The sand absorbs a significant amount of energy, so you need more swing than you think. For a standard greenside bunker shot of about fifteen metres, a three-quarter to full swing is appropriate.

Distance control

Once you've mastered the basic splash, distance control comes from two variables: the amount of sand you take (more sand = shorter shot) and the length of swing. For shorter shots, enter a little closer to the ball and slow your tempo slightly. For longer ones, enter further back and swing fuller.

The least reliable variable is swing speed — trying to hit harder tends to break down technique. Vary your entry point and swing length first, then experiment with speed once the fundamentals are consistent.

Fairway bunkers: a different shot entirely

The greenside splash technique does not apply to a fairway bunker. Here you need distance, which means you need clean contact. The approach is almost the opposite: take one or two clubs more than you'd normally use from that distance, play the ball slightly back in your stance, grip down on the club, and focus on picking the ball cleanly off the surface. No sand before the ball. Keep your lower body quiet and sweep it out.

The number one priority from a fairway bunker is getting out. Take enough loft, clear the lip comfortably, and put yourself in play. An extra shot from the fairway is far better than two more from the sand.

One drill to build confidence

Draw a line in the sand and practise hitting behind the line without a ball. The sole aim is to enter the sand on or just behind the line consistently. Once you can do that reliably, add a ball and trust the same motion. The ball is almost incidental — you're just hitting sand that happens to have a ball resting on it.

Spend twenty minutes in a practice bunker with this drill and you will leave with more confidence than an hour of range work could give you. The greenside bunker is not a hazard to be feared. With the right technique, it's one of the more controllable shots in the short game.