[Music] [Applause] [Music] hi everyone it's michelle here welcome back to golf with michelle today i'll be talking about bunker shots so basic bunker shots which is around the green so i have a lot of amateur or golfers that comes to me and say that they hate bunker shots they're stressed out when i walk into the bunker so today i would like to share with you some tips on hitting a better bunker shot so let's go there's a few basic things that you have to be really careful when you walk into the bunker we're now allowed to move the loose impediments let's say pebbles or leaves around the ball but we are not allowed to touch the ball so if you want to remove anything be really really careful that you do not move the ball so one more thing is you can support yourself when you walk into the bunker to avoid from falling or slipping into the bunker so you can actually ground the club like that but you're not allowed to test the sand that means you're not allowed to take practice swing you're not allowed to like ground the club at the back of the ball so just be really careful with that okay now we're going to move into the technical part of the bunker shot so first thing we're going to talk about the grip okay you're going to grip normally if the club head is pointing at 12 o'clock the top the toe of the club is pointing at 12 o'clock the heel is 0.6 o'clock if you choose to open the club face a little bit fine just point the toe a little bit at one o'clock then put in your left hand grip and then the right hand grip but for beginners you can actually just hold it normal just keep it square all right that's fine as well the second part of the setup is the stance okay so the stars will be about shoulder width i like both toes to point out a little bit more so it keeps us more stable for bunker shot we're trying not to sway okay we can't move side to side if you do that you tend to scour the shot or hit it way behind the ball okay in order to stand more stable there's a small tip for you like i would like to dig into the sand but i would like to move my right foot a little bit at this angle so i'm actually pushing against the sand a little bit so i will stop myself from moving to the right side on the backswing okay that's what i like to do definitely try it out so stance about shoulder width both toes point out dig a little bit into the sand let's see if this is the of the stance all right and again the middle of the the ball position is measured from the heels okay it's not from the toes because we're actually pointing our toes out all right this is the middle i like the ball to be just one more left off middle okay so here we go stance grip ball position and for the weight i would like for it to about 60 on the left side so it's about like your pitching weight distribution okay so this will be your setup position i like for you guys to try to sit a little bit more and get our swing plane a little bit more shallow so it's going to look a little bit like this okay a bit more shallow so it's gonna look a bit like that okay that will be your setup position when we get our setup solder out and if you have a good setup we're gonna hit it pretty solid so now we're gonna move into the swing okay so i have two lines in the sand over here so i will consider this is the ball and this is about two to three inches behind the ball this is about two to three inches behind the ball i get a lot of questions of people asking me how far i should hit behind the ball how much sand should i take okay so i would say technically you're going to hit about two to three inches but try not to be too precise and try to get it two three inches above two three inches behind the ball if people tend to think too hard about that i have people decelerating and sometimes topping because they're trying to be too perfect and hitting two to three inches behind the ball okay so once again make sure you have a good setup and high chance you're gonna hit it pretty good okay so before hitting the ball we're gonna pretend this is the ball and this is about two to three inches behind the ball when we get to a good setup position for chipping and pitching we have our hand a little bit ahead but for bunker shots i like for you to push the handle towards the right thigh a little bit more why is because i would like to create an angle over here which we're actually hinging our left wrist at follow through when we make contact with the sand why we need to do that is because i would like for you to use more bounce of the wedge okay so if i have my handle in front right i will tend to dig into the sand too much or sometimes even topping the ball so we have to make sure that we create this angle at setup okay so right here good setup position handle just a bit behind the ball back swing this is how we want to hit it so if i have if i put my handle too far in front so sometimes i'll actually dig into the stand which i'll hit it too far behind or sometimes i might even scale it which is going to hit after the ball so that's what we do not want there's also a couple reasons why we duff and thin the shot in the bunker those are the shots that we really do not want to do our goal is to first get the ball out of the bunker and eventually try to control the distance okay the number one reason is swaying so we tend to move right to left that will cause you to hit sometimes too far behind or sometimes not even catching anything and just thin the ball out of the bunker or there's another reason is we just use too much hands there's no turn at all hands and hit okay this will also cause inconsistency in the bunker so when you're in a bunker you have to make sure that you have really soft hands and stay relaxed throughout the shot so when you have a good setup handle towards the right thigh we're going to talk about the back swing first i would like for you to pick up the club like a normal back swing make sure you don't shut the club face like this just pick it up like a normal backswing while turning your sternum or your chest to the right side okay that will be your backswing for your bunker shot now talking about the downswing from this position you have to make sure that you keep turning the chest towards the target which is soft hands and letting the club head go before the handle so we could create this angle that i was i was mentioning earlier so you have to make sure the club head is going ahead of the handle so i would like for you to imagine that there's a mirror on the club face so after follow through i want for you guys to imagine that you're looking at yourself in the mirror okay so it's going to be somewhat at this position at the follow through so make sure the chest is facing the target club face facing you to summarize our bunker shot today number one clock face slightly open normal grip stance about shoulder width all right try to dig into the sand a little bit while having your right foot a little bit at this angle so it's against the sand to avoid you from swaying all right stay a bit lower handle towards the right thigh both position will be slightly left off middle just make sure you keep your hands soft and just swing it through and let the club head go first [Music] [Music] all right that's all i got for you for today i hope you guys will gain some confidence when you go into the bunker hit some fearless bunker shots make some sunny paws and enjoy your round even better if you guys do like this video please give me a like leave me a comment if you have any questions and also subscribe i'll see you guys in the next video thank you bye
Fearless Bunker Shots – Golf With Michele Low
