Gary Player is one of the sport’s all-time greats, with nine major wins to his name.
He is one of six players to have completed the career grand slam, and he’s a three-time winner of The Masters and The Open Championship.
The ever-outspoken Player said he’s the third-best golfer of all-time, behind Tiger Woods and Jack Nicklaus, and he’s always quick to tell the world just how good he really was.
And Gary Player also frequently offers golf tips to amateur golfers to help them improve their game. He once identified the most important thing for golfers to focus on when hitting out of the sand.
Gary Player names the ‘most important thing’ for golfers to do when hitting bunker shots
Player said that hitting bunker shots is all about commitment. It can be intimidating standing in the sand, with the fear of blading the ball over the green weighing on your mind.
But because of the density of the sand, the only way to hit a good shot out is to accelerate your club through the ball.
The South African explained: “The most important thing in a bunker I’m going to show you is acceleration. Okay? So now, when I’m in this bunker, I’m thinking acceleration.
“I put emphasis on acceleration because when you’re in the sand, that sand is thick, and it’s stopping your club from going through the sand. It’s not like a chip where you chip and there’s no resistance. This sand here has resistance in it.
“And the only way you’re going to play it well if you counteract the resistance and that is to feel acceleration. Now, how do you get the acceleration? Watch my back swing. Most weekend golfers in the bunker, they take the club back with their hands very stiff.
“You’ve got to hinge your wrists as quick as you can. You got to have a quick wrist there. Now watch how the club accelerates because of the quick wrist.”
Player went on to explain the importance of avoiding sway in the bunker shot.
He continued, “And the other thing is, people get in a trap, and you can see the legs moving all over the place like that. Now, you can imagine if you’re aiming one inch behind the ball, which you should do, and you’re moving all over the place, you’re going to hit two to three inches behind the ball.
“So, you should stand as wide as you can, a nice wide stance. Get your feet in the sand, and don’t let your legs move all over the place. Watch my legs. My legs are going to stay absolutely still there.”
Gary Player explains how to hit bunker shots on difficult lies
One of the most challenging things about bunker shots is the variety you might face in a round. Sometimes you can be gifted with a nice, flat lie, but the ball could easily be caught on an upslope, a downslope or be plugged in the sand.
But Player gave some tips for every scenario. Firstly, the plugged lie: “Now, if you get a buried lie like that, the fried egg, whatever you call it, I do not open the club face. I close it.
“I do not worry about following through. I chop it. Close the face. No follow-through. That’s going to run like crazy. Close the face. Hit straight down into Australia. Virtually no follow-through.”
By chopping down on the ball with a steep attack angle, you are compensating for the closed club face needed to generate enough power to cut through the sand.
Player went on to advise amateur golfers how to hit off downhill lies. He said, “This is the tough one. So, what you got to do is if you try and hit up because subconsciously you’re standing here and you see this down slope. How am I going to get the ball up?
“So, the first thing you try is to lift it. You’ve got to do the opposite. You’ve got to let the club go with the slope there. Go with the slope. And then you’ve got a chance of getting it out.
“So, you play it off the middle [of the stance], not off the front… So you got to put the ball in the middle, and you got to go with the slope.”
By going with the slope, you are allowing the club to glide underneath the ball, and generate enough lift to clear the lip of the bunker and get the ball on the green.
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