Learn the Skill of Hitting a High Spinning Bunker Shot

Hi, Robin here. Now, even to this day, without much practice, I would rate myself as a pretty good bunker player. I give credit to our old national team coach, Howard Bennett. He was a great short game coach, and there was one drill he had us do on almost every time we met, and that was to practice with a 7 iron or a 9 iron out of the bunker.

The purpose of this drill is to give you more awareness of how to increase the loft of the club, and how to maximize the loft of the club through impact. It’s a great drill for anybody struggling with the soft high bunker shot. It’s a very common shot, particularly for good players. When you miss the green, you tend to miss the green on the side on which the pin is cut on. The pin is cut reasonably close to the edge of the green. You’ll really need to get the ball up in the air, have a little bit of spin on it, and have the ball landing soft to give yourself a chance of getting up and down. It’s definitely a shot which, if you’re good at, can save you a few shots each time you play.

Now, I’ve chosen a 7 iron here. The purpose of this drill is to teach you how to increase loft. If I was just to place this club behind the ball in the position I need to get this ball to go up in the air and come down soft, you will see, I’ll have to put the handle of the club, the butt of the club, very low. I’ll have to twist the club face open – the combination of twisting the club face open and placing the butt of the club in a very low position. Now, I don’t want the leading edge pointing too far to the right of the target. So, the butt of the club will have to also come around to the right.  It can’t be sort of parallel to the target line. It’s got to come around to the right. And basically, I’ve now got to be in this position at impact to get the shot I want. So I need to take my set up based around this position. To do that I’ll have to get my stance wider to give myself a chance of getting low. I’ll have to flex my knees a lot more, giving myself a chance to build my setup around this position of the club.

Very big stance, very low, because now I’ve got a chance of maintaining that loft through to impact. Very key in bunker play is not to have the loft of the club reducing through the shot. So, now to be able to maintain this loft, I’m going to have to learn not to let my hands release over, maybe perhaps like you would see in a full shot. I’ve got to maintain this loft by keeping my right wrist underneath my left wrist, my left wrist going more into extension. You can see the loft of the club is maintained all the way through impact even into the follow-through position. So, if I can apply these rules, starting from setup, I should be able to hit a reasonably good bunker shot even though it’s a 7 iron.

Now, do a little bit of practice with your 7 iron or 9 iron. See if you can get that shot, that soft high bunker shot with that club. Because, if you can, when you switch back to your sand wedge, it’s going to feel very, very easy. The things you learn to do, getting the butt of the club low with the club faced slightly open, the shaft leaning a little bit away from the target, positioning your setup around that, bigger stance, lower, and then maintaining the loft of the club through the impact zone. Those are the mechanics of hitting that high soft bunker shot. So, when you get your sand wedge out, it’s going to feel very easy. We use the same mechanics, but we don’t have to exaggerate them anywhere to the same level. So, let’s give the sand wedge a try.

I’m going to open the club face, slightly. This is nowhere near as much as I did with my 7 iron. The butt of the club is going to be slightly away from the target. I’m a little lower than a regular sand wedge shot, or even a regular bunker shot. Stance a little bit bigger, nice and low. Now, from here the key is maintaining the loft of the club through impact into the follow through, feeling that little bit of left wrist extension.

So, it’s a drill I give credit to why I became a good bunker player, why to this day I can still hit that soft high bunker shot. I want you to give it a try. You might find it a little bit difficult at the start. But, with a little bit of practice, if you can learn to hit your 7 iron or 9 iron with a nice high flight, getting it to land soft, you’re going to find it so easy when you get your sand wedge back out again. Give it a try. Persist with it. I think it’s one of the best bunker drills out there.