The bunker shot has been called “the easiest shot in golf”. That is definitely an exaggeration, but once practiced enough; the bunker shot is easily mastered.

It is the only shot in golf in which not hitting the ball is your goal. The best way to get a ball out of a green side bunker is to splash the sand that the ball sits upon out of the bunker and the ball will come with it. By sticking with and practicing the following technique, you will find out how fun bunkers shots can become.

A proper bunker shot should splash the sand around and under the ball out of the bunker and on to the green.

Fortunately the sand wedge, which was invented by golfing great Gene Sarazen, is designed to do just that.

The sole of the sand wedge has what is called bounce. The bounce of a clubs sole is how much lower the back of the sole is than the leading edge.

The more bounce a sand wedge has the easier it is to splash the sand out of a bunker. It works very similar to the lift on an airplane’s wing. Y

ou can also add bounce by opening the face of your sand wedge, which is recommended to ensure you get the ball out of the bunker.

A sand shot should be executed just like a pitch shot. The main difference is that you want the club to enter the sand about an inch behind the ball, and it is very important that the club accelerates through the sand into a full finish. If you hit the sand and stop the ball will remain in the bunker.

A good visual image is to imagine a box around the ball about the size of a dollar bill. Your goal is to hit that box of sand out of the bunker with a powerful splash.

As with chipping, it is sometimes confusing which sand wedge to use since you have more options these days.

A lot of golfers carry a 56 and 60 degree sand wedge in their bag. I would recommend using the 60 degree wedge in most cases to maximize your height and bounce. With a longer bunker shot you can use the 56 degree wedge.

Some golfers still like to use the 56 on all occasions and manipulate the face to get the ball out higher, so it is definitely whichever wedge you feel more comfortable with.

Sometimes you might find your ball in a buried lie or what some golfers call a “fried egg” lie where the ball is buried in its own crater. In these cases I recommend hitting your sand wedge with an extremely open face.

Picture that the heel of the sand wedge is a hammer and imagine a nail in the sand about an inch and a half behind the ball. Then try to hammer that nail as hard as possible.

Sometimes the ball pops out and rolls, sometimes it will stop, but the goal in these situations is just to get it out of the bunker.

This method has always worked for me so I tend to teach this as well. Some golfers close the face, swing hard, and hit about 2 inches behind the ball. This also works, but is not near as reliable as the previously discussed method.

If you watch golf on TV you will hear the announcers talk about the chunk and run shot from the bunker.

This means that the player swings harder and hits further behind the ball than usual in the bunker.

The result is a ball that lands on the green and rolls. This is very useful shot if you have a lot of green between you and the pin.

The general rule of thumb is the more sand you take, the less spin the ball will have. The less sand you take, the more the ball will spin out of the bunker.

The variety of shots you can hit from the bunker is endless, and all it takes to become a master bunker player is a little creativity and a lot of practice.

Skull Shots and Fat Shots

The most common miss out of a green side bunker is the thin shot or a fat shot. This is because the golfer is not comfortable hitting behind the ball, and tends to move his center. The best cure for this is to practice hitting a line in the bunker. Just draw a line in the sand and make it disappear.

Leaving the ball in the Bunker

If you hit behind the ball but still leave it in the bunker there might be a few causes.

• One could be a closed face at impact which would cause the leading edge to enter the sand instead of the trailing edge. Basically, it eliminates the bounce on the wedge, and the ball does not jump out of the bunker.

• Another cause could be deceleration. If a club is decelerating through the sand it will cause the ball to remain in the bunker. The sand must be splashed out of the bunker with a powerful accelerating motion.