Michael Henning Golf Academy and ProShop
You have practised the basic greenside bunker shot and have become confident with the technique required, awkward lies in bunkers are really just variations upon the same theme. Obviously there will be occasions when the lie is so bad that you have to grin and bear it and take one of the penalty drop options, which will be explained later, but generally awkward lies present no problem if you follow certain rules.
The only difficulty with this shot is adopting a posture that can maintain balance and from which one can execute the shot correctly. Note from the pictures that I have created a wide stance to promote stability and that my hips and shoulders are angled at the same angle as the face of the bunker. The club face is also laid back to increase the loft of the club. Because my body will not be able to transfer it's weight through the shot I have to create more energy with the hands and arms. Aim about one and a half inches behind the ball, swing the club along your shoulder line, hit into the sand with speed and take a wedge of sand out under the ball. The club may well get stuck in the face of the bunker, but providing you have hit the sand at the correct place and with enough speed the ball will come out. There will not be much control over the flight of the ball and it will fly very high but at least it will be out.
Sometimes, of course, the ball enters the bunker from such a height, it plugs in its own pitch mark. The only way to force the ball out from a lie such as this is sheer force. Everything I have explained about speed and sand in the normal bunker shot has now got to be exaggerated. Stand to the ball with a slightly more square stance and close the club a little to take the bounce of the club. The bounce on a sand iron is the angle of the flange to the leading edge of the club which is specifically designed to cut through the sand. That is fine with a good lie but with a plugged lie we do not want to slice through the sand but instead need to hit down into the sand with a great deal of force to explode the ball out. Make sure your body really supports the speed of the hands and arms by transferring forward. There is no danger of thinning the shot across the green so you may as well commit yourself to the shot. The ball will come out with a lot of forward roll so do not expect much control but to be on the green will be fine.
I believe this to be the most difficult because firstly the down slope takes loft off the club and with the lip of the bunker behind the ball it is easy to catch the lip first Try and adopt as comfortable address position as possible with a wide stance. The shoulders, feet and hips will be pointing left of target to promote a steep angle of attack. Take a few practise backswings trying to hinge the wrists as quickly and as steeply as possible. You have to attack this shot from as steep an angle as possible to have a chance of avoiding the lip of the bunker. Aim at the sand behind the ball and enter the club at that point. Swing down the slope with speed. Don't try to scoop the ball out. Lots and lots of practise.
It is your prerogative and decision to deem your ball unplayable at any time in a bunker. If you feel that the shot is not worth attempting you have the following options. To drop the ball within two club lengths, not nearer the hole. The ball must be dropped in the bunker. Penalty one shot. To drop the ball behind the point where the ball lay keeping that point on line with the target and where you now drop the ball. You can go back as far as you like providing you drop the ball in the bunker. Penalty one shot. To play a ball from as near as possible to the place you played your previous shot. Penalty one shot. Obviously if you hit the ball into the bunker from two hundred yards away it is pointless to go back and play another but if you fluffed your chip or pitch into the bunker and it is now unplayable it may well be worth going back to the spot from where you played the chip or pitch under penalty of one shot. Just don' t fluff the chip a second time!!!
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