That may go down to some practice and trial and error. I always found that anything inside 50 yards I didn’t want to know how far it was. It gets too technical having a 25 yard swing and a 33 yard swing. Things change day to day and minute to minute. the best way to play these shots is observation and feel and belief and practice
I can swing at a bunker shot one million miles and hour with very low center of gravity by lowering my knees and hands and body and if I nip the ball well with a hugely open face and only skim the sand the ball may go only 8-10 yards and suck it’s head off and stop on a dime
OR
I can swing slower… take some more sand out and have the ball go the same 8-10 distance and still spin almost the same amount
Obviously the later is the better option while you are finding your ‘sand legs’ because if you don’t get the first option just right- that 8-10 yard shot could result in an 80-100 yard shot
There are many factors that come into play also…
sand texture(that’s why we dig the feet)…not so much for grip but to get a feel of how thick/thin/wet/soft/hard the sand and base are
bounce of the club you are using …is it 6 bounce, 8 bounce, 12 bounce, 14 bounce? the more bounce your wedge has the better adapted it will be for soft ground… the less bounce your wedge has the better adapted it will fit to firmer conditions-- most pros use an 8-10 bounce so they fit right in the middle of the spectrum- and if they go to the British Open where the ground is bare they will get a low bounce wedge made and if it rains cats and dogs for a week they will use a higher bounce wedge
uphill- downhill- sidehill lie - plugged - lots of green with a low lip- no green with a low lip- no green with a high lip and so on
The best way to feel it all is to drop some in a trap and just go to town- try different variations openess of the face…hit one inch/two inch/three inches behind the ball and watch what happens…try a bit more 4.30 swing instead of so much outside and watch what happens
I would say I have a stock standard bunker shot as I stated in my earlier post…but I also feel I have close to 25-30 different ways of playing a bunker shot depending on the conditions/lie/sand etc… all learned by fooling around in a bunker and feeling and observing what was necessary to achieve each result- not really basing my ideas on a book but using the basics and altering and monitoring what happened- keep the good feeling stuff and trash the junk
TM
when I played with Lag at the Mare, he went down into a bunker, filled both his palms with sand and threw it sideways onto the target. He said that is what you are trying to do in sand. Kind of breaking the right wrist at impact. It made sense to me then but I havent been able to practice it because of the snow. Do you do something simillar?
Pretty much macs… you have some great bunker bunkers like Gary Player and David Graham who would thump the sand with their club and on most occasions have basically an abbreviated no follow through action. Just relying on the amount of sand they took behind the ball and the depth they went down after it
You then have Norman and Seve and Tiger who were club thumpers and then sliders as they carried on up into a follow through… they made a conscious right hand thump at the ball and then continued that club onwards sliding it under and up to a finish with their hands/arms/body
Here’s a pretty good video explaining pretty much everything I said earlier… it’s all about having acceleration through the ball to send the sand out …the amount of sand before the ball you strike and the depth you go gives you the variation of distance… the alignment left and center of gravity of the body and the club and the loft and openness of the club gives you the trajectory
I think I mentioned it before that a few years back (2000 maybe) I spent an entire afternoon with Gary Player in Florida at Jack Nicklaus’ Bear Club just hanging out and practicing everything…and the most time he spent anywhere that day during practice…was in a bunker. Here is a guy classified as probably the greatest bunker player of all time and at 65 years old or whatever he was at the time --he still loved hopping into that bunker and working at it. trying all lies- all shots- all clubs
The end of the video is great- he hits with a 7 iron from a bunker…I used to do the same with a 3 iron… fooling around with these things brings the light bulb moments that help you understand exactly what should be going on with these types of shots.
All the students who are moduling away on their swing- now would be a great time (when the weather gets better for some people) to go practice, practice, practice the short game and let the module work take care of your swing. Imagine how great you will all be when not only your swing is fine tuned into a working machine but you have had solid short game practice for months on end from every situation and every lie with every club… you will be knocking more shots off your score than you could imagine. Like Player says in the video there are no true set of rules of how to with these type of shots. I can point you in the right direction but practice and feel and testing will find what works…
I’ve heard it said once that Gary Player would sometimes aim for the bunker on difficult long iron shots because his bunker play was so good he’d expect to get down in 1 or 2 every time. Not sure if that is true - interesing.
My own bunker play worsened a lot when I started using TGM principles - probably not TGM’s fault but my interpretation of it. The right arm throw was not at all helpful, and I improved again when I went back to thinking of the pivot as the driving force.
Two, where I play the bunkers are not well looked after and invariably the sand is quite solid. What advice do you have for that situation? Just a straight forward chip shot with a square stance?
Teddy,
If the bunkers are that way you will need a sand club or lob wedge that has minimal bounce on it… 6 or 8 degrees at most… the less bounce helps dig under the sand or whatever little sand there may be
You can open these ones up a little no problem…because the club has minimal bounce so you need not be so concerned about the bounce/rear of the club ricocheting off the sand and bringing on bladed shots so much.
Open stance to target…slightly open club to stance…and just swing that club down and under and really feel it work under the ball even though the sand is minimal. The low bounce design will aid you with this one.
You don’t need as much speed with the swing on the firmer ground because the ground is providing less resistance.
On firm ground I always try dig under the ball by using the low bounce- it does that for me digging through the turf…and then I abbreviate the follow through-- so I am giving the club no chance of overaccelerating too much after colliding with the ground/sand and possibly sending the ball scurrying across the green
If you are stepping in with a Vokey that says 56-14 on it then no matter how good you are you may hit 2 out of every 5 on the green …too much bounce for hard ground.
The good news is most of the old clubs we tend to congregate too didn’t have as much bounce issues on them from my estimations and they were more versatile because the sand wedge was the highest lofted club and it needed to be a jack of all trades club for all the lies that might confront us and was designed as such.
Thanks Two… it sounds like I should have a sand wedge with little bounce and carry that around with me to all my tournaments. However, every so often I will no doubt find a course with a lot of good sand, and only find out once I’m on the course when it’s too late and I have my low-bounce wedge… Or maybe I should just learn how to play a sand shot with a low-bounce wedge…
If the majority of the courses you get to play are firm like you suggest- the low bounce will be better
You can add a little bounce if conditions get soft by playing shots with a very open club face and bringing the rear of the club more into play- but that will take some practice to get used to the visual look of that and the distance control
OR
if you have space in the bag–carry two wedges…one with bounce and one with low bounce- then you are covered either way
Grip is irrelevant- V’s where they point etc
What is more important is the forearms- where do they hang or point?
Any forearm rotation either direction is bad because your arms will come back to impact where your arms are naturally made to hang.
If you stand in an address position and drop your arms and let them hang- then grip the club accordingly to the way your hands naturally flop down- that eliminates much of the club twisting throughout the swing and helps you have a better chance at getting somewhere near square again at impact
In bunkers open the face and then take your grip just twisting the face open with your grip or forearms will lead you back to the wrong impact alignment to be able to use the bounce
I’m a new student of ABS, started two weeks ago. It’s an honor to have you available for us students to ask questions and to learn from. Congratulations on all your success. It’s extremely impressive!
Now, my question…
I think in every review of my videos that I have sent to Lag he has mentioned that I need more spine/axis tilt. Or, as he says, “bow to the 4:30 line”. In the last video I sent, I started the drill by using the club vertically against my sternum and then turned my torso & shoulders 45* to the right and then bowed until the lower part of the club hits the inside of my left leg. Basically, the thing that Lag does with the long stick in the Mod1 Sup Video. Apparently, this was still not enough spine tilt for Lag as he commented, “You could have a bit more spine tilt… that would be to your benefit.” So, I’m starting to wonder if I’m not understanding spine and/or axis tilt. Are they different? Is it important to keep that tilt throughout the Mod 1 motion? Do you keep the forward bend portion, but lose the right-leaning portion during the motion? I’m not sure if it’s supposed to stay static, or does the tilt change during the motion, or what.
If I should be sending this question to Lag instead, please let me know that as well.
Hey Russ,
Without seeing the actual video work it would be hard for me to offer an exact opinion about this question… If Lag says that you could do with some more axis tilt, then I am certain he is correct.
Let me post a few pictures of axis/spinal tilt that may help give you a clearer picture about how the spine tilts coming into impact
The pictures show just how much the spine actually should tilt away from the ball coming into impact-- the Nicklaus single shot shows his spine angle at address (brown line) and the tilt he has coming through impact (blue line)
Lag is setting you up in module 1 to feel this and hopefully the pics may give you a look at what is trying to be achieved and you can watch your vids or Lag’s response and see if you are near these angles or if you are off the mark with them.
You can bow forward but we need to also increase tilt away-- this gets the club more behind on the 4.30 line and allows massive rotation of the forearm and body into impact for crisper better struck shots…hopefully some of that may help If not I would voice the concerns to John and he can elaborate farther on what is happening.
Module 1 is the setup for the delivery of the club and can be very foreign to many people…so stick at it and get it perfected per Lag’s suggestions and it will hold you in good stead for the upcoming modules
Since I’m new to ABS, first of all I’d like to take this opportunity to say hi to you, Lag and everybody else in here!
I feel genuinely priviliged to be able to learn from an accomplished golfer such as yourself. I have watched the vids you posted of you winning the Aussie Majors a couple of times now and this only strenghtened the belief that I have come to the right place
I’d like to ask you about the mental game: Do you feel it is necessary to work on this as a separate entity or do you basically feel that one should just get confidence and ‘peace of mind’ from the fact that you know your swing/technique is so good that you’ll know you’ll hit the ball solidly every time?
IofZ… the mental side goes hand in hand with your improvement… the better you feel about your swing and your strike and your strikes… the more confidence you will have in your own ability and the more in tune your mind can be.
As far as mental work… there are a bunch of good books and tapes. I have spent a bit of time with Dr. Bob Rotella at his house and around some events… he is great because he doesn’t blow your mind away with unheard of ways of thinking- he just re- affirms things that your brain wants to hear or has heard and forgotten. There’s a few books that are good too for a little awakening of just what our mental thoughts should or could be. I like Rotella’s books but I like his CD’s more even though his voice gets a bit monotonous at a few points.
Mental golf is more about the beating down of one’s self esteem not so much the rising up. We are all quick to beat ourselves up over a bad shot (you idiot what did you do that for?) and yet never as quick to pat ourselves on the back for a good shot( oh yeah, I meant that, no big deal). It’s gotta work both ways for a start…the more positive we can build up in anything the longer it will take for the negatives to infiltrate the system, then as time goes on and everything about your game improves the positives can outweigh the negatives. You won’t be as mentally exhausted or beat up after a game and it will become more enjoyable too because of a better golf body and a better golf mind.
Here is a guy classified as probably the greatest bunker player of all time and at 65 years old or whatever he was at the time --he still loved hopping into that bunker and working at it. trying all lies- all shots- all clubs
