What an awesome wrap-up from the US Open which led to Bryson claiming the title with an incredible up and down on the last hole. That bunker shot was by no means easy even for the most elite golfer. In fact in Bryson's case, I've heard him state in some videos that if he has any fear, it's shots out of the bunker at around that 40-50m range. This is because you are faced with a decision whether you should take the ball first followed by the sand or hitting the sand first.
Around the greens (within 20 m), you will often see them really comfortable with these shots as you can take up to a couple of inches behind the ball and still come out quite well. However when we approach longer distances, the strike really does need to be close to perfect. When Bryson faced this bunker shot, he decided to take sand first and thus needed to hit probably a half an inch behind the ball to come out perfectly. If he took more sand he would have come up short and if he misjudged the strike, he may have taken too much ball and thus ended up over the green.
As we saw, he did it perfectly and was able to secure the victory by nailing a 4 foot putt. It is interesting on the course sometimes that we often have to overcome our biggest fear in order to succeed to the next level. In terms of when to hit ball first and when not to when playing long bunker shots, will vary person to person. For my own example, I will tend to hit sand first right up until 45 metres. After this distance, I will hit ball first but ensure I drive my club down into the sand. This ensures that I can compress the ball with the right amount of spin.
The best way to become very good in the sand is to be precise with the low point of your swing. A great drill is drawing a line in front of you in the sand and practicing hitting the front part of the line. If you can do this up to 5 times in a row, you will start to have real control of your impact area. You will also then be able to manage exactly what part of the sand you want to hit behind the ball. If you hit far behind the ball, the ball will go a short distance. If you hit just behind the ball, the ball will go further.
If you'd like any further help in long bunker shots just book in with myself at David Waters Golf.
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