Bunker shots

Im (currently) a single figure handicapper , and i am perfectly happy in extracating myself from (most) bunkers, however I can NEVER get any kind of spin on the ball (except if its a long one).
How do you do this ????

Surely at some time during the stroke, the club must come in contact with the ball - as i really cant see how you can get enough spin to stop the ball if the only conatact is via sand.
So ... tips welcome

I rarely get in sand, don't practise the shots (very silly and an area I definitely should invest time in) and so am pretty poor out of it. "Sandies" are extremely rare for me. 

I guess you must hit the ball first to get spin. The sand splash can stop it quickly but this is through height, angle of descent and the cushion of sand at impact reducing the speed of the ball.

I struggle a lot with fairway bunkers so anyone with cast iron tips there too would be appreciated by me!

Yeah, not going in them is the best answer i guess!

Appropriate club - 56 or 58 degree wedge with 11 or 12 degrees of bounce.
Open clubface, hit down hard an inch behind the ball and follow through. Easiest shot in golf as it's all about commitment and no need for getting cute. Tricky bit is getting it close, but that's just practice or natural ability.

so do you try to keep the club face held open?
Ive heard that you should hit the sand with the bounce, rather than the leading edge ... is that correct ?

Am i expecting the bounce to force the club towards the ball and so actually contact ball with club ? or should there always be a healthy layer of sand between clubface and ball ?

As far as I'm aware you should always hit the sand first. The really spinny shots come from lots of clubhead speed + loft. So if you want more spin you have to open up the face more and swing harder.

I don't think it's a vital shot to be able to pull off. The chunk and run bunker shot will do the job 8 or 9 times out of 10.

busted wrote:so do you try to keep the club face held open?

yep. feet open to target, ball forward in stance. swing a little across the ball (out to in)

busted wrote:Ive heard that you should hit the sand with the bounce, rather than the leading edge ... is that correct ?

i think that's the idea, whether it's the actual case i don't know. presumably it's still the leading edge that chops under first but the bounce creates resistance, literally bouncing the club back up.

busted wrote:Am i expecting the bounce to force the club towards the ball and so actually contact ball with club ? or should there always be a healthy layer of sand between clubface and ball ?

tbh, i don't think you need to worry about this - no idea! i always just focus on catching the sand first an inch or so behind the ball - making a good follow through is crucial.

spin isn't vital - its control you're after. i generally try to land the ball about 1-2 yards short of the flag so it stops quickly on the second bounce. if you land it 4-5 yards short and it runs out to the same position it's still a good shot.

i dont really get it tho. I hit in behind the ball, with open face, hard, take plenty of sand, swing right through. The ball comes out fine but just runs and runs and runs. Get absolutely NO spin at all.
Thats why im trying to see if there is meant to be some contact somewhere with the clubface and ball.

You do not need to make club on ball contact to get the spin. As this slow mo shows the pros eject the ball by exploding a pocket of sand under the ball.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S_QEpBZT-40


Not sure why you are not getting the spin but it could be to do with not taking enough sand or having a high enough clubhead speed at impact.

cheers .. i will try that out

What ball are you using? If not one with a urethane cover, that may be part of what you're experiencing.

The pros almost never fizz the ball backwards from a greenside bunker shot so I'm not sure what you're trying to achieve.
You'll get max spin from a bunker with a tiny bit of sand between ball and clubface - the sand will bite into the ball cover giving maximum grip and will do the same to the clubface a bit, essentially meaning there's zero slippage of the ball in contact. Momentum and loft will do the rest. Trouble is, you have almost zero margin for error with such a precise contact - much better to hit further behind the ball and splash out and allow for a bit of roll out.

Edit: Mac's right about clubhead speed as well. The more speed, the more spin....but then how do you control that clubhead speed on a delicate greenside bunker shot when the increased speed will make the shot overshoot if you're not very, very careful? Again, how many times have you seen a pro screw a ball back from a typical, short, greenside bunker splash shot?

ive tried all sorts of balls ! no difference at all ..
im not trying to spin it back, just really want to stop it bounding on endlessly !
.. but now i know that its not a completely different type of shot/contact to the one im attempting , i shall persist.

I was practising my bunker shots the other evening, and I noticed that if I tried to control the length of my bunker shots in the same way I would with a normal chip shot the ball came out generally ok but without spin and fairly inconsistently. I then tried making a longer backswing and found it was much more consistent with a higher flight and plenty of stop.

Are your greens slow? Balls won't stop quickly on slow spongy greens. If you can't stop it with a wedge from the fairway then it definitely won't happen from a greenside bunker.

There are a few points here...

Firstly, define what you mean by spin? If you are expecting the ball to bounce once or twice then zip back 10 feet then its never going to happen on 95% of courses due to the quality of the greens & bunkers.

You probably do get "spin" on your bunker shots but not what you see on the TV.
It will be more like a bit of check.

Spinning out of a bunker (and on any shot really) is all to do with ball striking and the angle of attack.
To generate spin you need a steep angle of attack so you are effectively hitting down on the ball (assuming you don't mean topspin!)

Personally I wouldn't invest too much of your time in trying to get spin on your bunker shots.
You are a single figure player and assuming your home course has an average amount of bunkers then im guessing you go in them about 1-3 times a round.
I would suggest just practice your bunker shots so you are able to confidently splash the ball out of the bunker on quite a high trajectory. You probably wont leave it stiff very often, but you will give yourself a lot of chances to make par.

Iv played literally a handful of bunkershots in my life where I have wanted to / need to spin it. These have always occurred when I have short sided myself to a very tight pin on quick greens.
Any other bunker shot and splashing it out to pitch 5-10 feet short of the hole will do.

by spin I simply mean a some check,, i just dont get any at all ... the ball comes out fine, and just trundles right accross the green. Some other people i play with do manage to get some check, meaning they are putting rather than chipping! Im just confirming that what Im trying to do is roughly correct .. which seems like it is, so i just need more practice

Sharpen the grooves on your sand wedge maybe?