All golfers, at one time or another, will face those daunting sand shots. Now these shots may seem intimidating, but if you have properly practiced a few drills, they should be a breeze. There are many different drills and advice from all sorts of people out there on how to hit bunker shots. I will share a few of the drills that I have found helpful to both myself and others.
There are many different drills that people have used in an attempt to improve their sand game. Most of these drills are worthless and will show little, if any improvement to your game. These three drills that have been battle tested by numerous people and have all shown to significantly improve a golfers sand game. The first drill to try would be the two ball drill. This drill entails placing two balls in the sand trap. Place one where you would normally place it in the middle of your stance, and the other six inches ahead of it.
English: Golfer Ernie Els walks up the fairway at ...
Photo of golfer Ernie Els at the 2009 President's ...
Ernie Els, South African golferIn this drill the golfer attempts to swing at a low angle so their club slides under both balls. "The second exercise is the Rake-Line Drill, where a rake is used to make two parallel lines 12 inches apart and perpendicular to the target line. Here the clubhead should enter the sand at the back line and exit at the front line"(Alpenfels 1). "Finally, we tested the Buried-Board Drill, where a two-byfour is buried to the level of the sand and a shot is played from a clump of sand on the board"(Alpenfels 1). While these drills will help you with your basic sand shot, higher level golfers need more than one type of shot to truly be successful (Alpenfels, Anderson 1-2).
Professional golfer Ernie Els says that these two shots...