The 2017 season has got off to a great start. I am looking forward to a travel trip with my club to the Pinehurst Golf Resort later this month. The members attending and I are in for a real treat. We are scheduled to play #4, #8 and the famous #2. My new monthly news segment will showcase Equipment, Technology and Instructional tips.
Helping contact out of Fairway Bunkers (especially at Pinehurst)
This is one of the most difficult areas in golf, hitting from a fairway bunker to a target 50 to up to 200 yards away puts a lot of emphasis on precise contact. If you get too much sand the ball won’t fly as far and if you get too much of the ball results in a thin shot and effects your ability to clear the lip. With the Pinehurst trip coming up and that courses vast bunker design, Nick explores how you can improve contact in a fairway bunker and gives drills to help practice this.
- First look at the bunker itself, ask yourself can I hit the club I want and clear the lip. Secondly what’s between you and the hole.
- Grip the club with a slightly open face to encourage the bounce of the club to interact with the sand during contact.
- Grip down the club up to 2” to allow the club to dig
- I encourage standing a touch closer to the ball to promote a slightly steeper swing plane to allow the club to hit down on the ball and not up.
- To promote stability and avoid any lateral movement dig your trail foot on an angle almost as if your pushing off towards the target.
- During the swing allow the club to hinge upwards more than usual and make sure your weight is moving towards to target striking the ball then the sand. A more thinly struck shot is better than one caught heavy.
Try hitting out of sanded divots on the range to help fine tune this technique when hitting on a grass range.
New in the Pro Shop is GAME GOLF Live. A GPS game analyzer to track how you are doing on the course and how well your fairway bunkers are performing. For more visit www.gamegolf.com
