Bunker shots terrify most amateur golfers. I get it — there’s something about stepping down into a sand trap with a scorecard in your back pocket that turns a normally confident golfer into a sweaty mess. But here’s the honest truth: once you understand what’s actually happening at impact, bunker shots stop being scary and start becoming one of the most repeatable shots in your bag. This guide will walk you through everything you need to know to get out of sand every single time.

Why Bunker Shots Are Actually Easier Than You Think

Here’s the thing tour pros know that most amateurs don’t: a greenside bunker shot is more forgiving than a chip from tight grass. That sounds backwards, I know. But it’s true, and here’s why.

When you chip off a tight lie, the margin for error is maybe a quarter of an inch. Catch it slightly thin and the ball screams over the green. Catch it slightly fat and you chunk it three feet. That’s a brutal amount of precision required for a shot that looks simple.

A bunker shot? You’re not even trying to hit the ball. You’re hitting the sand behind the ball, and the sand does all the work. That gives you a cushion — literally and figuratively. Miss your entry point by half an inch and the ball still comes out. That’s a feature, not a bug.

The players who struggle in bunkers are almost always the ones who treat it like a normal shot — they try to pick the ball clean or hit it “hard enough.” That instinct works against you. Once you rewire your brain around the mechanics, everything clicks.

Understanding the Mechanics: What Actually Happens at Impact

The Physics of a Sand Shot

In a standard greenside bunker shot, your clubface never touches the golf ball. That’s the foundational fact everything else builds on. Here’s the sequence:

1. The leading edge of your wedge enters the sand 1–2 inches behind the ball
2. The sole of the club (specifically the bounce) rides through the sand rather than digging in
3. The ball sits in a small divot of sand that gets displaced forward and upward
4. The ball rides out on that cushion of sand, while the spin and trajectory come from the loft and face angle of your wedge

That’s it. No magic. No secret tour trick. Your club goes into the sand, the sand carries the ball out, and you follow through. If you can internalize that, you’re already halfway there.

Bounce: The Most Underrated Feature on Your Wedge

The “bounce” on your wedge is the angle between the leading edge and the trailing edge of the sole. When that trailing edge is lower than the leading edge, the club naturally wants to skim through soft material rather than dig into it. That’s bounce doing its job.

High bounce (12–16°): The sole rides on top of soft, fluffy sand. The club glides through without digging. This is what you want in most bunker conditions.
Mid bounce (8–12°): Versatile. Works in a range of conditions from medium-firm to medium-soft sand.
Low bounce (4–8°): Better for firm, wet, or hardpan sand. Allows more digging when the surface can handle it.

Most recreational golfers playing average course conditions are best served by a wedge in the 12–14° bounce range for bunker play. If you’re shopping for a wedge and want detailed specs, take a look at the Titleist Vokey SM10 review — the K grind in particular is one of the best-designed soles for sand performance at any level. The Cleveland RTX ZipCore is another excellent option, with a re-engineered sole that handles soft sand especially well.

The Setup: Get This Right and the Rest Follows

Setup is where bunker shots are won or lost. I’d argue that 70% of bunker failures happen before the club ever moves — bad setup leads to a bad swing leads to a ball still sitting in the sand.

Stance and Foot Position

Open your stance significantly — we’re talking 20–30 degrees left of your target line (for a right-handed golfer). This isn’t a subtle adjustment. Your feet, hips, and shoulders should all point well left of where you want the ball to go.

Then wiggle your feet into the sand. This accomplishes two things: it gives you a stable base on a surface that doesn’t naturally provide one, and it lowers your body relative to the ball, which naturally puts the club in a position to enter the sand rather than pick the ball clean.

Your stance width should be slightly wider than your normal pitch shot. You want a stable, planted base. This isn’t a shot where you’re generating power from a narrow stance — you want to feel rooted.

Ball Position

Play the ball forward in your stance — inside your left heel, roughly opposite your front foot (for right-handers). A lot of amateurs play the ball too far back because they instinctively want to “get under it.” Don’t. Forward ball position encourages the shallow, sweeping entry angle that makes sand shots work. Ball back in the stance promotes a steep, digging strike — which is exactly what you don’t want.

There’s one exception: buried lies. But we’ll get to that.

Weight Distribution

Set up with about 60% of your weight on your front foot, and keep it there throughout the swing. You’re not trying to shift your weight dramatically — you just want a slight lean toward the target at address that stays consistent. This forward lean prevents the club from bottoming out too early, which is what causes you to hit three inches behind the ball and leave it in the bunker.

Opening the Clubface

Here’s the step most people get wrong: you need to open the clubface before you take your grip, not after. If you take your normal grip and then rotate the face open, you’re just fighting your hands through the shot and the face will likely close back to square at impact.

Instead: lay the face open first (pointing right of target), then grip the club. Now when your hands return naturally to a relaxed position through impact, the face stays open. That open face is what gives you height, spin, and softness on the shot.

Yes, your body is aimed left. Yes, the clubface is aimed at (or slightly right of) your target. You’re going to swing along your body line, and the face angle is going to send the ball toward the target. It feels weird until it doesn’t. Trust it.

The Swing: Stay Committed, Stay Through It

Backswing

Take the club back along your body line — which, because you’re open, means you’re swinging slightly outside the target line. The swing should feel a bit upright and narrow compared to a full iron shot. You want to feel the wrists hinge early to create a steeper attack angle. Not steep like an axe — steep like a controlled descending blow into sand.

The length of your backswing controls your distance. More on that in a minute.

Downswing and Impact

Swing down along your body line. This is where most golfers fall apart: they either decelerate (leaving the ball in the sand) or they try to aim the clubhead at the ball and forget about the sand entry point altogether.

Your focus point shouldn’t be the ball. It should be a spot in the sand about 1.5 inches behind the ball. That’s your target. Hit that spot. The ball is almost a bystander in this equation.

The club needs to accelerate through the sand. You can’t steer it in or ease up. Think of it like swinging through the sand, not into it. The sand creates resistance, so your swing has to be assertive enough to displace it. A half-hearted swing stalls in the sand. A committed swing rides through it.

The Follow-Through: This Is Non-Negotiable

If there’s one single thing you take from this article, make it this: finish your swing. All the way through. Your hands should end up high, near your left shoulder (for right-handers), and your chest should be facing the target. A full, high finish is evidence that you stayed committed and didn’t quit on the shot.

The follow-through also keeps the face open through impact. If you abbreviate your swing or flip your hands, the face closes and you get a low, skulled shot. Commit to the finish every single time, no exceptions.

Distance Control: How to Actually Hit It Different Lengths

Once you can get out of bunkers consistently, the next skill is controlling how far the ball goes. There are three main variables:

1. Swing Length

The most reliable way to adjust distance is to change the length of your backswing. Longer backswing equals more clubhead speed equals more sand displacement equals more distance. Shorter backswing, shorter shot. Keep everything else the same and just adjust how far back you take the club.

2. Amount of Sand Taken

More sand between the clubface and ball means the ball comes out with less energy and stops sooner. Less sand means more direct force transfer and more roll out. You can adjust this by moving your entry point slightly closer or further from the ball, but I’d caution most golfers to leave this variable alone until they’re consistently getting out with the first method.

3. Face Angle

More open face equals higher trajectory and shorter carry with more spin and a soft landing. A slightly less open (or square) face equals a lower, hotter ball that runs out more. If you need to fly a shot to a tight pin near the bunker edge, open it up. If you’ve got green to work with and just need to get out, you can close it slightly.

Distance Reference Chart

Target Distance	Swing Length	Sand Entry	Face Angle
5–10 yards	Half backswing	2 inches behind ball	Wide open
15–20 yards	Three-quarter backswing	1.5 inches behind ball	Open
25–30 yards	Full backswing	1 inch behind ball	Slightly open

Reading the Sand: Adjustments for Different Conditions

Not all sand is the same, and a setup that works perfectly at one course can get you into trouble at another. Here’s how to adjust on the fly.

Soft, Fluffy Sand

This is the most common type at well-maintained courses. The sand is light, dry, and shifts easily. In fluffy sand:

• Your high-bounce wedge is your best friend — the sole glides through rather than sinking
• Open the face more than usual to keep the club skimming on top
• You’ll need a bit more swing for the same distance because more energy gets absorbed by the soft material
• Dig your feet in a little deeper to give yourself a stable platform

Firm, Wet, or Compacted Sand

After rain or on poorly maintained courses, bunker sand can get packed down hard. This completely changes the equation:

• High bounce will bounce off the firm surface and catch the ball thin — not good
• Use a lower-bounce wedge if you have one, or square the face up slightly to reduce effective bounce
• Take less sand — maybe 1 inch behind the ball instead of 1.5
• The ball will come out hotter and with less spin, so aim conservatively and expect more run-out
• If the sand is truly hardpan, consider treating it more like a chip — ball slightly back, minimal sand interaction

Coarse, Heavy Sand

Some courses (especially links-style layouts) use coarser, heavier sand. Think of it as a middle ground between fluffy and firm. The club wants to dig a bit but not as aggressively as on hardpan. Mid-bounce (10–12°) wedges tend to shine here. Your entry point stays at about 1.5 inches, but you’ll need to commit to the swing harder than you might expect to push through the resistance.

Hardpan Bunkers

If there’s almost no sand and you’re essentially hitting off a dirt surface, throw the standard bunker technique out the window. Use a pitching wedge or gap wedge, play the ball slightly back of center, and pick it clean. The standard sand shot technique will skull the ball every time on hardpan because there’s nothing for the bounce to ride on.

Special Situations

Buried Lies (Fried Eggs)

Ball plugged in the lip or half-buried in the sand? Everything changes. You actually want to dig here:

• Square or slightly close the face — this reduces bounce and lets the leading edge dig in
• Move the ball back in your stance slightly (center of stance)
• Steepen your attack angle — think more of a V-shaped swing rather than a shallow U
• Aim for the sand right at the front edge of the crater the ball has made
• The ball will come out with almost no spin and will roll out significantly — aim well short of the flag and let it run

Downhill Lies in Bunkers

• Lean your weight into the slope (more weight on the front foot)
• Position the ball back slightly and swing with the slope, not against it
• Expect a lower, more running shot — open the face extra to compensate if you can
• The bunker wall ahead is often the main hazard here — make sure you have enough loft to clear it

Uphill Lies in Bunkers

• Lean into the slope — weight on the back foot more than usual
• Ball slightly forward, face open a bit more
• The uphill slope adds effective loft, so the ball will come out higher and land softer — you can be aggressive
• Be careful not to over-rotate and spin out — keep your lower body quiet

Short-Sided (Plugged Against the Lip)

If you’re in the face of a bunker with almost no green to work with, this is where a lob wedge earns its place in the bag. Open the face as wide as it’ll go, keep the ball forward, and make a steep, aggressive swing. The shot goes almost straight up and lands like a bag of wet cement. Don’t try this with a 56° sand wedge — you won’t generate enough height to stop it in time.

Common Mistakes

Trying to Scoop the Ball Out

This is mistake number one. The instinct to help the ball up by flipping the wrists through impact kills more bunker shots than anything else. When you scoop, the leading edge passes under the ball and you either thin it (skulled over the green) or you dump the club in the sand three inches behind (leaves it in the bunker). Trust the loft. Hit down and through. The ball gets up because the face is designed to make it get up.

Decelerating Through Impact

This is the fear response — you’re worried about hitting it too hard, so you slow the club down right before impact. The result is the club stalling in the sand and the ball trickling out two feet, still in the bunker. Sand takes energy out of your swing by nature. If anything, you need more acceleration than you think, not less. Make a committed, assertive swing every time.

Gripping Too Tight

Death grip leads to a stiff, jabby swing that doesn’t flow through the sand properly. Loosen up. You want your hands firm enough to control the club, but relaxed enough that the natural release can happen. Think 5 out of 10 grip pressure. Let the club swing.

Ball Too Far Back in the Stance

This creates a steep, choppy angle of attack. You drive the leading edge straight down into the sand and bury the club. Ball position should be forward — inside the left heel — so the club can sweep through on a shallow path. If you keep chunking bunker shots, check your ball position first.

Closing or Forgetting to Open the Face

A closed or even neutral clubface digs rather than slides. The result is a low, heavy shot that goes nowhere near the target. The open face is the whole mechanism — it’s what activates the bounce and creates the loft needed to carry the ball out. If you’re leaving shots in the bunker or hitting them too low, check whether your face is actually open.

Not Clearing the Bunker Lip on First Attempt

This one’s a mindset problem. Some golfers take one look at a six-inch bunker wall and immediately swing as hard as they can without thinking about trajectory. Make sure the shot you’re attempting — the face angle, the swing length — actually produces a ball flight high enough to clear the lip. If in doubt, open the face more and take a fuller swing. One putt for bogey is always better than three more tries from the bunker.

Drills to Practice

The Line Drill

Go to the practice bunker with a rake. Draw a straight line across the sand — no ball. Now practice hitting that line with the leading edge of your club, over and over. Watch where the club actually enters versus where you’re aiming. Most golfers are surprised how inconsistent their entry point is. Work on this until you can hit that line 9 times out of 10. This is the single most useful bunker drill there is.

The Dollar Bill Drill

Place a ball in the sand, then imagine there’s a dollar bill laid flat under the ball with about one inch sticking out behind it. Your goal is to slide the club under that bill and pop it — ball and bill — out of the bunker. This gives your brain a concrete spatial target for the entry point and helps eliminate the instinct to hit at the ball itself.

No-Ball Splash Practice

Just get in a bunker and make swings. No ball. Focus entirely on the sensation of the club skimming through the sand on a shallow, consistent path. Listen to the sound — a solid bunker shot makes a satisfying “thump” as the sand compresses, not a sharp “crack.” You’re training the feel, not the result.

The Distance Ladder

Set three targets at 10, 20, and 30 feet from the bunker edge. Hit five shots to each distance in sequence, then repeat. The challenge: only change your backswing length to control distance. Keep your rhythm, entry point, and face angle consistent. This drill exposes whether you’re controlling distance properly (with swing length) or improperly (by swinging harder and losing control).

Buried Lie Reps

Drop three balls into the sand and push each one in with your finger to varying depths — slightly plugged, half-buried, and fully buried. Work through your adjustments for each lie: face angle, ball position, swing shape. The goal is to build enough experience with these situations that they don’t cause panic on the course.

Consecutive Exit Challenge

The pressure drill. The rule is simple: you can’t leave the bunker until you’ve hit 5 consecutive shots out. If you fail one, you start counting from zero. It sounds easy until you’re on shot 4 and start thinking about it. This drill is excellent at simulating the mental pressure of real bunker situations, and it forces you to execute the technique under mild stress.

When to See a Pro

I’ll be straight with you — most golfers can improve their bunker play significantly on their own with the fundamentals above and some consistent practice. But there are specific situations where a lesson is the right call.

If you’re blade-ing shots repeatedly: Consistent thinned bunker shots that fly low and hot usually mean one of two things — ball too far back in your stance, or your club is entering the sand too close to the ball. A good eye catching you in real time is worth more than rereading a checklist.

If you can’t stop chunking deep: Leaving balls in the bunker shot after shot usually means you’re decelerating or your setup has your weight too far back. Video analysis from a lesson can pinpoint this in two minutes versus two weeks of self-diagnosis.

If you’ve changed your technique and gotten worse: Sometimes you’ve made an overcorrection. A pro can tell you if the adjustment you made is actually making the underlying problem worse.

If you play courses with unusual sand conditions: If your home course has hardpan bunkers or very specific sand that doesn’t match normal high-bounce technique, a local pro who knows that course can give you targeted advice you won’t find in a general guide.

If bunker anxiety is affecting the rest of your game: This is real, and it’s worth acknowledging. If the fear of hitting a bunker is causing you to miss greens on purpose or to spray tee shots, a lesson that builds genuine confidence is a smart investment. Nothing breaks the cycle of bunker anxiety faster than having someone watch you hit 20 good ones in a row.

Equipment Notes for Bunker Play

You don’t need a special wedge for bunkers — but having the wrong wedge makes everything harder. If your sand wedge has low bounce (under 8°) and you’re playing fluffy sand, the club wants to dig and you’re fighting physics every shot.

For most golfers, the standard greenside setup is a 54–56° sand wedge with 12–14° of bounce, and a 58–60° lob wedge as the backup for tight pins and short-sided situations. The lob wedge only needs to clear a small gap and stop quickly — it’s not a distance tool, it’s an escape hatch.

If you’re unsure what to add to your bag or you want to track your sand saves and see whether your wedge choices are actually making a difference, a quality launch monitor can be eye-opening. The best launch monitors under $1,000 can measure spin, trajectory, and landing angle from a practice bunker session, giving you real data on how your technique is translating to actual ball flight.

The Mental Side of Bunkers

Last thing, and it matters: your mental routine going into a bunker shot determines a lot of what happens.

Before you step in, look at the shot from outside the bunker. Pick your landing spot on the green — not the flag, a spot on the green. See the ball landing there. Then step in, take your setup, and commit. You’re not hoping for a good shot. You’re executing a shot you’ve practiced and you know how to hit.

Once you step in, don’t second-guess. The worst thing in a bunker is a tentative swing. If you’ve got doubts about the shot, step out, reset, and re-commit. A confident half-swing beats an anxious full-swing every time.

Bunkers are honestly not as bad as their reputation. The sand absorbs your mistakes and the physics are on your side. Set up correctly, commit to hitting the sand, and follow through completely. Do those three things and you’re getting out — every time.

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