Bunker Play & Sand Saves

I have a friend who whenever he played a shot not to his liking he would go "aargh lah!" When I heard this, I knew it wasn't a good shot. Recently, when I heard this same expression, I cringed and feared for his safety. So I resorted to warning him about the consequence of shouting the same way because it sounded like what a neighbouring country has been fighting over the use of a word which means God. Especially if you were to golf there.

The problem with Singapore is that we have nothing, not even water but then this could have been a blessing to us as we could not afford to be complacent and therefore have to strive harder than others just so that we could survive. When a neighbour threatened to cut off water supplies, we came out with Newater. Sometime ago, I was duly concerned when another neighbour banned sand sales to us. Not that I am from the construction business but when I watch fellow golfers playing their bunker shots, it gave cause for concerns. Many who got into bunkers seem to feel like it is disastrous and often would require two, maybe three and occasionally even four shots to get out and back into play accompanied by a black face. I was gravely concerned because of the way they would splash sand out of the bunker and still left the ball in the bunker and if you were to do it two, three or four times, the bunkers are going to be devoid of sand sooner rather than later and with the ban of sand sales, the bunkers would be left with no more sand one day soon then how are we to make bunker play and sand saves? I was seriously considering gathering a team of experts to come up with "Newsand".

Types Of Bunkers

There are basically three types of bunkers - greenside bunkers, fairway bunkers and waste bunkers. For waste bunkers, you are allowed to rest your club on the ground (sand) but not for the other two. If you make practise swings in the bunker and hit the sand it is considered a stroke has been played. Be careful there. Fairway bunkers are strategically placed in the fairways as a trap. For example if there is water on the left they would place a bunker to the right since most people in avoiding water would want to go there while greenside bunkers are laid in front, behind and around the green so that they can protect it from you to frustrate and take the Mickey out of you.

Fear

For bunker play, the greatest obstacle is fear. Many golfers have an innate fear of bunkers including good golfers. The fear of being unable to control the shot or getting a bad result. Even professionals may have such inherent fear. Sometimes, you could hear the commentators saying that such and such a player is somewhat weaker in the sand shots. It is all about knowing and understanding completely how the shot is to be played, apply some practice to gain confidence and claim victory over it or you will always struggle. It's in the mind. A lot of the fear is in thinking in the mind that when you hit it fat (going under too much) taking too much sand, the ball hardly move or pops up a little and then find its way back in the sand or the opposite happens which is when you take too much of the ball with little or no sand and you send it over to the next bunker, into the hazard or water. The only way to overcome this fear factor is to just go ahead and have a whack regardless of the result until you get a feel of how it is best done. The first step to good bunker sand play is to remove your fears.

The First Step

In most cases the fairways are wide even though a few can be narrow. They put a bunker or two in some inauspicious corner, sometimes not even really in play but you tee off or hit a second shot and it goes straight into the bunker. It is liken to driving a car in a desert that has only a single tree and you crash into that tree. This leads some folks to aim for the bunker so it won't get there since your shots are not going where you aim. Reverse psychology? The first step, therefore, is to avoid the bunkers. Even for greenside bunkers, you have to ask yourself where your second shot would land. If it is 50/50 to get onto the green, then it may be wiser to lay out short just before the bunkers. Unless you have no fear and is quite proficient with bunker play.

I would personally prefer to play shots from the bunker than deep rough if there were only two choices. From the bunker, you can still control the direction of your shot, where to land, how high or low to hit it, more or less spin, how far to go, etc. You can actually choose to be offensive but from the deep rough it is a different story opposite of this. It is therefore very important to take the fear out of bunker and make it just a formality to get the ball up and on to the green. Yes, with a single shot of course. Is this how you play right now? Here's how you do it.

How To Play Bunker Shots

Let us address shots from greenside bunkers. For bunker play, you are not allowed to rest your club. The first thing you must absolutely feel when you step into a bunker is to be full of confidence. When you are playing a shot from the fairway, your swing is a steep descending impact onto the ball but greenside bunker play is the only shot in golf where your club do not touch the ball at all. It is a shallower swing that takes the sand behind the ball, gliding through completely into the sand below the ball and it is this impact that causes the sand to blast the ball out. If you were standing on top on the green watching someone playing from a deep bunker, a good bunker shot is played when you first see sand splashing out majestically and a split second later the ball followed in the direction of the sand. You have to imagine that the ball is resting on a tee but the tee is buried in the sand which you can't see and the job of your clubhead is to glide into the sand to hit the tee below the ball.

The Set Up

You can use any club to play but a sand wedge is the most ideal. Depending on how large is the green and how far the pin (flag) is located from the bunker, you may wish to play a 9 iron if the green is big and the hole is still some distance away meaning you need a bit more carry and more roll. But if you are proficient enough a sand wedge is good to play low or high shots, short or longer carry from the sand. To get out of a bunker situation you will have to open everything except your trousers. You have to set up and align yourself differently from fairway shots. When I say you open up everything, it means that you align everything - your body, shoulders, hips and feet all to the left of the target and never directly to the target. This is very very important as you will usually see folks doing it halfway - body alignment to the left but shoulders wrongly aligned. Next, you have to open up the club face like the club face is facing the sky. Depending on how deep the bunker is, you can vary how open the club face is to be. If you need a shorter distance open the face completely and for longer explosion, a little less open. While the body is aligned to the left, the club face open, the club face is to be aligned to the target. This correct set up will help lead you into a more natural and shallower swing path and get a more desirable result.

The problem with most golfers is that they may put in a good swing and because of the fear of over carrying the shot, they stop short of a complete follow through which usually causes poor results. A good nice follow through is essential.


Always Take Sand First

The most elementary aspect of bunker play is to "always take the sand first". It is a "leap of faith". What you see or feel is immaterial. Your mind is asking how can I bring the ball up without touching it? Forget your clever reasoning because your logic makes you want to hit at the ball. Asking you to take that leap of faith is like having faith in God Almighty. Believing is seeing not the other way around. Your first aim is to get the ball out of the bunker and back into play on the green. Practise till you could achieve that no matter which part of the green it landed. When your escape act has improved, proceed to practise on and fiddle around with how much sand to take on impact - for example if you want more spin then you have to take less sand and hit further behind the ball if you need more roll.

The Lie

Do not worry about where your ball lies in the bunker or in what condition is the bunker. If your ball lies in the middle of a bunker on normal sand condition it is nice. Do not fret when you find your ball right at the end or right before the green, steep down with a bunker lip to clear. Worse, some times you will find them buried in very soft sand like "hor pau tan" (sunny side up egg). Dig your feet into the sand just so that you can have a solid firm stand but not dig yourself too deep into a hole. Soft sand is easy to blast the ball out but may hit the ball further than you intended while on a wet day, the sand can be compact, sticky and feel firm in which case you need a good grip to let rip. The method of the set up and swing is largely the same regardless of the lie but judgement is needed to gauge how high your shot is needed to clear a bunker lip, etc. just like how you would read the distance to play against a head wind on the fairway. Another good way to escalate your chances of success for beginners or weaker players from the bunker is to aim to get out from the lowest lip and safest point of the bunker.


Acceleration & Follow Through

This is liken to a chip shot from say 50m. Sometimes, it also happens in putting. There is a tendency to over swing during the back swing then coming down and forward you "decelerate" and stop short of a complete follow through. This is the perfect recipe for a disaster and will be accentuated if played from a bunker. You need that tempo to regulate the right speed and then acceleration is everything to it. Many golfers play poorly from the bunker as they try just to pop it out. You are either trying to look cute or are men of little faith. For a good bunker shot, your swing needs to be a bit more of being from the outside-to-in so as to facilitate slicing through the sand.

Fairway Bunkers

Fairway bunkers are still quite far away from the green. It requires a different skill set and strategy to overcome. You can either just get it out and back onto the fairways or for those who are more proficient you may want a solid contact to get the ball right onto the green or very close to it. For the latter, I would recommend that when you get into the bunker, do not dig too deep into the sand with your feet. Do not play the ball too much to the front foot as you would want to pop it from a descending blow and playing it at the centre or slightly towards the backfoot of your stance may be beneficial. As you are not allowed to rest yor club try aiming your clubhead at the upper end of the ball rather than at the bottom to avoid hitting fat. A good clean shot without taking sand when executed correctly will send you to paradise.

Conclusion

If you have ever played with me, you will know that I have completely no fear of any bunker and I would always joke that I intentionally laid up my shot into the bunker for my favourite shot. In fact, I hit my shots to chase after holes from the sand these days. I would like to call them "Pin Seekers". This is not an empty boast but I merely and humbly wish to report that I was one of the worst bunker players you would have met not long ago. My sand play was always laughable as it was very often tragic. 


My only fear of bunker play is when I have to hit it against a strong head wind. This is because the sand that was blasted out would fly into me - my face, my eyes, it gets through your hair into the scalp and the fine tiny weeny sand particles will get stuck onto your hands and legs due to the sticky sun block applied. Gordon Liddy tied himself to a tree during a storm to overcome his fear of lightning. 


The famous British crack unit the SAS (Special Air Service) commandos' motto should give you an idea and says it all - "Who Dares Wins". I am not a better bunker player than you nor more skilful. It is just that I have removed that fear. Occasionally I still do the unthinkable bad shot from the bunker but even if I did, I do so fearlessly. Try it out and you will soon find that the results are amazing! I kid you not. 


It is easy but you have got to believe. Hope you can tell me that you have overcome and have become a great bunker player soon! Remember, if all else fails and you are left high and dry in a deep bunker and your flight mates are high up on the green with the pin far back, grab some sand with your left hand and the ball with your right. Throw the sand as if you have just taken a shot follow by throwing the ball then add a few strokes to your score. At least you know how to have fun with your hand wedge!


Golf as in life, play as it lies.