Before You Hit a Bunker Shot, Do This (Takes 5 Seconds)

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Transcript Summary-

Alright, so this week, we’re in the bunkers, and right here is where John and Fay came to see me. They were really struggling — fatting it, thinning it, no confidence at all. But here’s the amazing thing: in just three minutes, both of them weren’t just getting out every time, they were playing world-class bunker shots. Fay even handled a tricky downhill lie like a pro, getting it out first time.

In this video, I want to show you the simplest way to get out of bunkers every single time, so you can start controlling your distance and knocking the ball closer to the flag. When you learn bunker shots the right way, they become effortless and incredibly satisfying to play. If you’re new to my lessons, consider subscribing — I release videos like this every week, and I’ll even include a free practice guide in the description so you don’t have to remember everything.

Stage one was all about the setup. I drew a line in the sand, got them to place their lead heel on it, open the clubface so the leading edge pointed at the toe, flare the lead foot out about 45 degrees, sink slightly into the sand, weight forward, and head centred. Then it was about building the skill of landing the club in the same spot every time. Don’t force it — just notice where you’re striking the sand and let your body naturally adjust until you’re consistently hitting that line.

Once they could hit the line, we worked on controlling how much sand they took. I got them to listen for that “thud” sound — a lovely, full, flowing swing that makes clean contact with the sand. No stabbing, no tension, just trusting the loft of the club to pop the ball up.

Finally, we tackled distance control. For short shots, same flowing motion but a shorter finish. For longer shots, finish high over the lead shoulder — still smooth, still flowing. Combine all three skills — consistent contact point, the right amount of sand, and distance control through your follow-through — and bunker shots become simple.

Trust the loft, build the skill in practice, and you’ll step into any bunker knowing you can play the shot. That’s exactly what happened with John and Fay, and it can happen for you too.

Full Transcript- So, as you can see, we're in bunkers this week. And this very bunker was the scene of John and Fay coming to see me, really struggling to get out of the bunkers on a regular basis, fatting it, thinning it, just no confidence whatsoever. But in three, just three minutes, both of them, they weren't just getting out every single time. They were playing worldclass bunker shots, getting spin on on the ball. They were actually even even Fay, I took her to the back of this bunker, so it's a downhill lie, and she was getting it out first time.

Look at that on a downhill line. In this video, I want to share with you the simplest way to get out of bunkers every single time, so you can start to control your distance as well and start getting those balls next to the flag. So, I can't wait to share it with you. I just think bunker shots are one of those shots that when you learn how to play them really with effortless ease, they just feel great. So, before I do the look, if you're new to the channel, one of your first lessons of mine, please consider subscribing. I release videos just like this one every single week to try and help you improve your game. Plus, you never have to remember a thing. Everything we do in the bunker, I'll put into a free download or practice guide in the description box below. So, if you're willing to stick with me throughout this video, I'm going to show you step by step how we got John and Fay out of the bunker, but more importantly going home feeling really confident and enjoying bunker shots. So, the first stage, like any shot in golf, you want to make sure we're set up absolutely spot on. So ultimately all I did with um both of them is I drew a line in the sand like this. Okay. Now everything we do here I know like when I'm drawing a line in the sand, you can't do this in competitive player, but we're not in competition. We're trying to develop a brilliant bunker action. So you need to develop the skill first. So I got them to draw a line in the sand. I then got them to put the lead heel on that line. And then all I did as stage number one is this. I got them to kind of open their club face. So that leading edge was pointing right at the toe of the lead foot here. I got their toe pointing outwards at around about a 45 degree angle. I got them to lower themselves a little bit into the sand here. So not stood too tall. Simple as that. With their weight forward and their head in the middle of their stance. Right now that is all setup really is super super simple. The next thing I wanted them to do is they needed like any golf shot, they need to be really good at landing the club in the same spot each and every single time. Now, to be a great bunker player, the closer you can land the club just behind that golf ball, the better bunker player you'll be. Now, when they first tried this and they started to make some swings, they were landing it sometimes way behind the line, sometimes ahead of the line, sometimes on the line. Now, what I asked them to do, I said, "Don't focus by trying to be really precise and hit that line time and time again. Just simply notice where your club is striking the sand. Just notice. And allow your body to naturally adjust and start to get that line each and every single time. If I said if you focus too much on trying to hit the line, you can start to add too much tension and you start to look like this. I just said to them, "Keep swinging until the club starts to naturally hit that line every time." Now, you can imagine, they say, "Well, you can't do that on a golf course." No, you can't. But what you can do is you can do it in practice rounds. And the idea is is to build that skill up. Once you've built the skill, you're going to find it super super easy to then go to a normal shot and do it naturally. And that was stage number one before we moved on to anything else. So, let's have a look at that in action. So, I've got myself set up here, and all I'm going to do is again make a swing. I've got a feeling of what is going to uh connect to that line and away we go.

Beautiful flowing motion through the shot. Simple as that. So, before we move on to stage number two, one thing I did noticed with um FA particularly, you know, when you have a steep bank in front of you here, it's going to be hard to hit that line consistently, if you start to kind of lean back and move around, it does take a little bit of confidence. You've got a lot of I've got a 60°ree wedge here. I've got a loft a lot of loft on this golf club. And then I've I've by opening I've probably turned it to almost 70°. So I don't need any help trying to get the ball airborne. The there's enough loft on that golf. You've got to learn to trust that. Now once we've done that and they started to build that skill of hitting the line, the next thing they needed to control was basically the connection with the sand. Sometimes um they wouldn't hit the sand at all and they would blade the uh the ball into the face of the bunker. Sometimes they would hit too much sand and just put sand over the ball and leave that in the bunker. So, how do you control the amount of sand that you got you create or take in a on a natural basis? So, all I did with them is I said, "Look, we don't want to get too precise with this because that adds tension." So, I said, "Listen to this sound." So, I got them to basically make a few swings and I just hit I played that sound for him. Thud

thud into the sand. I said, "Like create that noise." So get yourself set here. Keep the swing. This is really important. Keep the swing beautifully flowing backwards and forwards. Not jabby. We are swinging. It's quite a full swing a bung shot. You're taking sand, right? We're I'll show you how we control distance in a second. But I said make a swing. Let's create that thud. Don't worry about where the ball finishes. Just make a swing. You got your setup in place. Make a swing. Look how full my swing is there. I've made a thud. Look on that sand. and the ball just pops up beautifully. Learning to kind of create that, it stops the brain overthinking, stops get it getting too tight and precise. Use and trust the loft of the club to land on the spot, take the right amount of sound every single time by listening to that sound. So once we did that, the final piece was then how do you control bunkers? Uh bunk control, how do you control the distance each and every single time? If I've got a short bunker shot, I still want to have this lovely flowing motion. Bunker shots for me are very much right sided. We kind of want to flow through with their right side here, a trail side of the body. Most people are driving at it like this. So, I said, "Look, if you want to control bunk shot, make sure we've got a nice long flowing motion on the way back. On short bunker shots, what we're going to do is we're going to kind of finish shorter. And on longer bunker shots, we're going to finish with our club over our lead shoulder like this. But each time, notice here, I am flowing through the shot. So this is a slightly shorter one. Look. So I get myself set like short finish there. Look. Pops up beautifully. And if I wanted to go play a longer one, all I'm going to do is I'm going to imagine the same principle, but this time what I'm going to do is finish with a fuller style motion. And look what I'm going to finish here. I'm just going to imagine again committing to this shot. Nice and flowing here. Backwards and forwards. Look at my finish. Backwards and forwards. Stops beautifully. And you're not hitting it miles because you're hitting sand. Yeah. So once you've got control of the bottom of the swing because you're hitting a line every single time. Once you're kind of playing around with that sound, that thud sound. So you're controlling the depth. Then it's just a case of allowing the club to flow beautifully backwards and forwards. We're not standing there flicking this club like this. The club's beautifully flowing and we're controlling it on the way through with a beautiful pivot of my right side through the shot like this. You see how I'm pivoting almost up onto my toe here backwards and forwards. Trust the loft of the club. Develop the skill. I know that you can't draw lines when you're playing competitions. This isn't about that. Build the skill of being a great bunker player so that you can then walk to the shot knowing you can play it and just play the shot. This is what we do as as as professionals. I hope you enjoy this video. I hope it helps and I hope you can start k balls out in just a few minutes just like John and Fay. Thanks so much for taking the time to watch. Look, if you're new to the channel, your first videos of mine, please consider subscribing. I release videos just like this one every single week to try and help you improve your game. If you want to see more short game videos just like this one, click this video right here. And if you want more personalized help with your game, head over to dannymod.com. But until next week, have a wonderful golfing.