When Your Ball Is Above Your Feet In A Bunker.

When your ball is lying above your feet in a bunker, you must adjust your set up to make allowances for this.
Hold the grip of the club further down the shaft and position yourself accordingly to the correct distance from the ball.
In this case the ball will fly to the right so aim a little more left to allow for this.
Stand a little more erect to help with the body adjustment to the set up.

Open your club head, and with the ball off your left heel, swing from out to in as usual.
Make sure the club head remains open at all times during the swing, and keep your head still until well into the follow through.

When Your Ball Is Below Your Feet In A Bunker.

If the ball is lying below your feet in a bunker, set up as for a normal shot.

Adjustment is made to bring your body down to the level of the ball by bending your knees enough to achieve this.
Further adjustment is made by holding the club as near to the end of the shaft as possible.

The ball will tend to go right from the club and to allow for this you must aim more to the left.
Have your weight on your left foot and the ball off your left heel.

Then swing from out to in as usual.
It is essential that you keep your head still during the swing until well into the follow through.

Play Your Bunker Shots Within Your Capabilities

The best way out of a bunker onto mown grass whether it be fairway or green is the shortest rout.
If you are situated just inside a bunker with a lot of sand to cross to reach the green, then a shot backwards towards the tee onto the fairway may be your bet option.
Then you have more chance of a good chip across a bunker as already described and one put if you play your chip well.

Bunker shots are often missed because it seems wrong to hit the sand and not the ball.
Some players try to pick the ball off the sand hitting the ball first.

You have to gain confidence that if you hit the sand one or even two inches behind the ball, the club will exert pressure on the sand and cause an explosion forcing the ball upwards and forwards.
The closer the club head is to the ball, the more spin will be applied to the ball.

Much practice is needed to hit the ball one inch behind the ball because of the danger of hitting too close to the ball and sending the ball across the green in a sculled shot.
So play safe.
Certainly this is an area where much practice is needed and not enough is done in most cases.

Choose The Right Sand Wedge

You will find that there are several types of sand wedges available.
They differ in the width and depth of flange.
The wider and deeper the flange, the more it will bounce on contact with the sand.

If the club bounces it will pass under the ball on a shallower plane.

Therefore for very soft sand this is a plus.
It is certainly not a plus if the sand is hard or even like hard pan.

For this type of bunker you need a club with a narrow flange so that it will dig deeper and pass beneath the ball at a deeper plane.
On a hard pan bunker it will pass at the correct depth to get the desired result.
So what if your home course has both soft sand and hard pan type bunkers?

Try to find a club with a medium flange.
If all bunkers are soft, then a wide flange is for you.
Conversely, if the bunkers are hard, then a narrower flange should be your choice.

Chipping Over A Bunker

So you have missed the green, and landed just short of a bunker.
Now you have a sensitive shot across the bunker onto the green and you want your ball to stop quickly and not run for ever off the green on the other side and even into a bunker if there is one on your line of fire.
Provided your ball is on some grass and sitting up even just a little bit, there is a shot you can play to do just what I have suggested above.
You set your ball up just to the left of your left foot. Place most of your weight onto your left foot and have your hands behind the ball.
Now you hit the ball sliding the club beneath it.
The ball will rise in the air and drop vertically onto its landing place.
You use a sand iron or a pitching wedge. The wedge will go further than the sand iron. A lob wedge is dangerous because it will travel only a little distance and probably land in the bunker. You will have to hit the ball quite hard to get the distance you want because most of the travel is up into the air and then vertically down.

Keeping Your Eyes On The Ball Even If You Do Lift Your Head

When we make a golf swing, we turn our head with our trunk, thus taking our eyes off the ball too soon.
This is because our eyes follow our body and look ahead at all times.
This is a mistake.
What we should do is, as our body and head turn to the left we should move our eyes to the right and keep them on the ball.
This means that the head and the eyes become independent of each other.

This will take a deal of practice and so during the day, practice turning your head to the left while looking at an imaginary golf ball by turning yur eyes to the right.

Some Drills To Help You Achieve A Grooved Swing

Break you swing into segments.
From the address position, the arms and chest form a triangle.
Take this triangle with no wrist movement away until the club is waist high. Practice this over and over again until you are sure you are taking away in one piece with no wrist moments.

It is fatal to use your wrists in the take away.

Practice every segment of your swing many times.

Take your swing to the top and check again, turn your left hip to start your down swing and once again check your position.

Continue with your arms until the head of the club is behind the ball.
Stop here and check that your club head is square.

Then continue with firm wrists, using your arms only to the follow through crossing your right forearm over your left in the process.

This last move will make sure you are not scooping at impact to try to get the ball in the air.