One of golf’s best bunker players says this sand key is ‘really important’ | Teaching

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Put a wedge in his hands and Luke Donald is a magician.

It is an elite skill born out of necessity. Never the longest or straightest ball striker around, Donald learned to make it work by learning to get up and down from everywhere. He became one of the best wedge players ever in the process and rose to World No. 1 while the way.

In his Golf Digest Schools series (which you can check out here), Donald shares a host of his short game secrets. There’s good stuff scattered throughout, but I particularly enjoyed some of the advice about bunker shots. One thing he keeps coming back to throughout is the concept of bounce. Bounce, in a nutshell, is the width of your club’s soul, and it plays a big role in how your club interacts with turf or sand. Beginner golfers generally do well with more bounce, as clubs with less bounce tend to dig in more.

And in the bunker, Donald says, using the bounce is key.

“The most important part of bunker shots is making sure you use the bounce effectively,” he says. “Make sure the back edge of the club hits the sand first … it’s really important.”

Here’s his advice on how you can do it.

1. Set the clubface open before taking your grip

What makes bunker shots difficult is that they require a different approach to all your other shots. Everywhere else from tee-to-green, the goal is to set up with your clubface square. On bunker shots, it needs to be open so the ball floats high, soft and yes, so you can expose the bounce of your club.

It’s so important that Donald recommends opening the clubface wide first, and then picking up your grip. If you first try to grip like you normally would, then open the clubface, you won’t be able to open the clubface enough. So, remember: Open the Clubface first, then touch.

2. Lean the shaft away from the target

Opening the clubface will help with this, but it’s still not enough. To really take advantage of your wedge’s bounce, Donald says to angle the shaft away from the target during setup.

“You really don’t want that shaft to be leaning,” Donald said. “You don’t want the front edge to dig in … you’re going to struggle to get out of the bunker every time.”

3. Keep the club wide on the downswing

When you do that, make sure the clubhead hits the sand before the ball, Donald says. He feels like doing that the clubhead stays wide during the swing and eventually he passes his hands over the ball so it hangs again.

4. Get into the habit of throwing sand

A good drill to do all of this, Donald says, doesn’t even involve hitting a golf ball. Load the clubface of your wedge with a bunch of sand, then take a few swings stopping at the top of your backswing. If the sand falls before that, you are closing the clubface too much and too soon.

Again, you can view the entire series here.

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