The Great Escape

The keys to making a clean exit from a fairway bunker

It sounds simple, but the main objective and most important strategy when you find yourself in a fairway bunker is to get the ball out!

The Pro: Jean Waters of Essex County Club

All too often, players try to hit a shot to the green instead of using better course management by selecting a closer intermediate target to shoot for and then hit to the green from there. Going for the green when it’s best to play a safer shot usually leads to leaving the ball in the sand or plugging the ball into the lip of the bunker and leaving you an impossible shot.

One of the biggest problems with the fairway bunker shot is that it is not practiced very much to develop confidence, so proper technique and fundamentals are even more important. There are two questions you need to ask yourself prior to hitting a fairway bunker shot:

1. How much club do you need to carry the edge of the bunker safely?
   
   
2. If you can hit enough club to reach the green, where is the safest place to hit it?

Once you have answered those questions and made your club selection, visualize the ball flight of the shot. Then set up to the ball with a square or slightly open stance. Next, dig your feet into the sand, keeping in mind that you should grip down on the club the same amount that you dig your feet into the sand. If you neglect to do this, you will increase the risk of taking too much sand behind the ball.

Using woods out of fairway bunkers is not recommended since it increases the risk of bouncing the bottom off the sand and topping the ball. Irons are much easier to use for successful fairway bunker shots.

When executing the shot, you want to look down at the top of the ball and try to hit the ball, then the sand, unlike when you’re in a greenside bunker when you hit the sand first. You want to try and nip the ball off the sand by taking a little sand after the ball or no sand at all. Therefore, you do not want to be swinging with a descending motion like most other shots in golf.

In order to maintain good balance, you will feel that there is less leg motion than if you were on grass and you will feel a stronger arm swing to a balanced finish.

Remember, hit the ball first, then the sand. That’s the best and only way to hit an effective fairway bunker shot.