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Golf Instruction With Steve North: The Easiest Shot in Golf!
Steve North
26/07/07
Consumed by fear each and every time your ball heads into a bunker? Well, there’s no need to be. In the first article of a new and exclusive instructional series for Asian Golf Monthly, Steve North (pictured), director of instruction at the St Andrews Links Golf Academy, explains that escaping from a sand trap is the easiest shot in golf! Read on.
Most amateur golfers have a phobia about bunkers; everyone believes they are way harder than they actually are.
Virtually every amateur, upon climbing into a bunker, starts going through a list of swing thoughts – open stance, open clubface, swing out to in, hit two inches behind the ball, follow through, and so on.
As a result, by the time they have to hit the shot, they’re thinking about so many things they can hardly take the club back.
Basic bunker shots are easy. You don’t even have to hit the ball. The fact is, there is more margin for error with a bunker shot than any other shot in the game. All you have to do is understand how the sand wedge works and why the set up is all-important.
You may have noticed that your sand iron features a heavy flange on its sole. Study the flange closely and you will see that the back edge sits lower than the leading edge.
That gives the club what we call ‘bounce’ (some clubs have more bounce than others – as a general rule, the softer the sand the more beneficial the bounce factor is).
When the sand iron is skimmed through the sand, the flange acts as a rudder, forcing the club and the ball up and out to safety.
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Pictures 1 and 2
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Before you set up to the ball, open the clubface and then make your grip. Then, having placed your hands on the club, open your stance (ie. as you settle down to the shot, make sure that the lines across your feet, knees, hips and shoulders point to the left of the target) and position the ball just forward of centre in your stance (pictures 1 and 2).
Be careful not to let the club touch the sand at address, as grounding the club in a hazard will result in a penalty.
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Pictures 3 and 4
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To play the shot, simply swing along the line of your toes (pictures 3 and 4) and don’t be afraid to hit the sand fairly hard.
As long as you maintain your momentum and accelerate through impact, the ball will come out softly (pictures 5 and 6).
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Pictures 5 and 6
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To play a shot out of the Road Hole bunker you would have to use an extremely open clubface, making sure you maintain the open clubface all the way through impact. Visualise the grooves looking up towards the sky.
If you follow these basic techniques you’ll see why the bunker shot is the easiest shot in golf.
PGA Golf Management (PGAGM) provides all of the tuition services at the new St Andrews Links Academy for St Andrews Links Trust. PGAGM also manages the PGA Golf Academy at China’s Bayhood No 9 Golf Club, 30 minutes from Beijing’s central business district.
For further details, please visit www.pgagm.com
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