Your New Bunker Setup By: Sean Foley/photos by Dom Furore

Your New Bunker Setup

By: Sean Foley/photos by Dom Furore

In this Golf Digest article by golf instructor Sean Foley, the author introduces golfers to a new set up for making bunker shots. While most amateur golfers understand that a sand shot requires them to strike the sand first and skim the wedge underneath the ball, there is no consistency to where their club first strikes the sand. This results in wildly divergent outcomes from hitting the shot too thin and airmailing the green or hitting too far behind the ball and failing to escape the bunker at all. Mr. Foley instructs readers on how his “new bunker setup” help to deliver consistent bunker shots.

Here is how the article describes this new setup:

“With an open stance (aiming left), play the ball off your left heel, but make sure your belt buckle is closer to the target than your sternum. Your left leg should be bent, and you should feel a lot of pressure in that thigh muscle (left photo). When you swing, maintain that feeling of pressure. In other words, keep supporting your body weight with your left side. The mistake is to hang back in an effort to get the ball over the lip (above). This will make it difficult for you to replicate where the club bottoms out. You also run the risk of blading the ball due to a shallow angle of attack.”

Once you have read this lesson and fully digested it (or made a copy), you should take your sand wedge to the greenside practice area. In order for this setup to work for you, it must practiced repeatedly until you have it mastered. Do not deceive yourself into believing that you can take Mr. Foley’s instruction straight to the course and have it return the results you desire. Golf does not work that way.

We at Wishing Well Outdoors hope that you found this article by Sean Foley to be very helpful toward improving your bunker play. You may read the original article by clicking the article’s title below the featured photograph at the top of the page. We trust that when you are in the market for new golf equipment, accessories and apparel you browse the golf section of our store.