Bunker Shots

An Overview of Bunker Shots from James Sieckmann, Plus Some Helpful Videos

Aug 25, 2023

Bunkers are score killers, but sometimes we just can’t help it and we end up in the sand. So how can improve out of the sand and not feel the pending doom of skulling a shot 50 yards over the green or seeing the ball roll back down to our feet?

I am by no means a great bunker player, but I have learned some fundamentals by reading and watching some smart people. What I’ve learned is there is no one way to do it, but there are some key commonalities in a good bunker shot.

Your Short Game Solution: Bunker Shots

James Sieckman’s book “Your Short Game Solution” is a great read for all things short game. Sieckman is known as a short game guru and has helped many PGA pros with what Sieckman calls “finesse shots”. I highly recommend reading his book. Link

In Chapter 10 called Bunker Shots: Tour Techniques for Every Player, Sieckman breaks down the core fundamentals for a correct bunker shot. Here are his thoughts on a fundamentally sound bunker shot.

The Set Up

Expose the Bounce and Add Loft

Sieckman says the first thing we need to do is expose the bounce and increase the loft of the club. What does that mean? It means we need to open up the club face. Now this is a bit technical but Sieckman believes in rotating the club face open during the swing; whereas, most players grip the club with the face already open at address.

I’ll put this under personal preferences, but the bottom line is we need to get the club face open at some point in order to properly hit a bunker shot.

Here’s an example of what a wedge looks like to open the club and add loft:

Why does this help? By exposing the bounce it also us to thump the sand with the back of the club, as opposed to impacting the sand with the leading edge which will dig.

*You should be using a 56 to 60-degree wedge out of the sand.

Wide Stance, Weight Forward

Sieckman says to “set up like a bear”.

Make your stance wide (shoulder width or more), and feel like you are sitting on a stool, with your weight slightly forward.

See the pic below for an example:

As you can see, the player is crouched down in a wide stance and leaning slightly forward with an open club face.

A big mistake I see amateurs make (myself included) is we tend to want to help the ball up by falling back and shifting our weight to the back foot. This is a bunker-shot killer. You need to trust the loft and keep that weight forward.

Low Hands

Once you set up you need to lower your hands to just above knee height. This will require you to back up a bit more than you’re used to.

*Sidenote: Sieckman believes in a square stance to the target line. Some believe in a very open one and Tiger might even be slightly closed at times. Don’t worry about this. I would keep it simple by making sure you are doing the 3 bullets from before and start with a square to the target stance. Practice with that and see how it feels and adjust from there. Also, have the ball slightly forward of middle as a starting point.

The Swing

Here’s how Sieckman explains a great bunker shot:

“A great bunker swing features little or no lower-body movement and weight shift, along with a narrow arm swing.”

A couple of important things from this graphic. This is not a normal shot. We don’t want to turn our hips and shoulders like an approach shot. It’s very arms-based. We also need to release the club head in front of our hands/body versus a normal shot where we want more shaft lean.

*If you have shaft lean from the bunker you will have a very hard time executing a good bunker shot!

Finally, Sieckman wants you to feel the speed in the correct place. Here’s the full quote:

“One of the most common bunker-swing errors I see from amateurs is transitioning to quickly from backswing to downswing and then decelerating. This inhibits a proper release and creates a “chunk” mishit — the clubhead sticks in the sand while negating energy to the point where the ball remains in the bunker.”
“The correct feeling is that you’re slowly building up speed until the moment you let the club swing past your body. In a good bunker swing, the clubhead reaches top speed after impact.”

I get that the swing part of this is harder to comprehend. Feels are just harder to explain than setup, but I’ll attach some videos below that might help you better understand what Sieckman is describing.

However, what you can do is make sure you are properly set up. With a proper set up you’ll have a better chance of executing quality bunker shots.

That’s it for today. Have a good weekend and check out the videos below.

Videos:

In the video below Tiger explains how he likes to hit draws out of the sand. It’s a fascinating watch and both Tiger and Day have some excellent tips for bunker play.

Also below are a couple of videos from Dan Grieve (@dangrievegolf). Another good follow for chipping and bunker play is James Oh on Instagram (@jamesohgolf).