Any golfer will tell you this is one of the toughest shots to play in golf. Marooned in a fairway bunker is often the last place you want to find yourself. The important thing to bare in mind is not to attempt to play the shot like a normal bunker shot with a longer club. Below I've outlined 5 key swing thoughts to help you achieve more success from the fairway bunker: 1. You must hit closer to the ball than with a normal bunker shot. With greenside bunker shots we are only looking to advance the ball a few yards onto the green and must therefore take some stick out of a hard swing by hitting a few inches behind the ball. In a fairway bunker we may be upwards of 200 yards from the green and can definitely not afford to take so much sand. 2. The backswing you make is crucial to your success with long bunker shots. Unlike with greenside bunker shots we do not want to pick the club up so much on the backswing. Instead, make a normal long sweeping swing with the aim of having a much shallower cut into the sand. 3. Most of the long bunker shot is played in the same way as a normal fairway shot and the grip is no different. Whereas you would normally grip lightly and further down the shaft with your greenside bunker setup, here you want to play it as normal with hands at the top of the shaft and with a more firm grip. 4. One of the main causes of poorly played fairway bunker shots is a lack of belief that the ball is going to fly out the bunker Sandy Lyle esque. You must therefore concentrate on accelerating through the ball on the downswing and have trust that the shot will come off. Losing faith and dying on the ball is one way to ensure you will require another long shot to reach the green. 5. This shot takes practise. If you are a decent player then it's likely you may encounter a fairway bunker shot only once in several rounds so it becomes one of the least practised shots. Instead of going to the practise ground and hitting numerous mid irons off the flat that you can probably play with your eyes closed, practise your weaknesses one of which is probably the long bunker shot. |
