Greg Norman says he sees a number of mistakes that golfers make out of the sand.
It’s an area of the average golfer’s game where lots of shots can be saved. According to Shot Scope data, amateurs fail to save par out of bunkers an average of 80% of the time. Find yourself in the bunker five times in a round, and that’s at least four more shots on your scorecard on average.
But as one of the great short-game specialists of his era and a phenomenal bunker player, Greg Norman has a fix for the biggest fault he sees from golfers in the sand. The two-time Open Championship winner says he sees why players thin the ball over the green constantly.
And his advice for fixing the issue is remarkably simple to implement.
Greg Norman has simple advice for hitting out of bunkers
When hitting bunker shots, we tend to grip tightly and hit the sand hard, hoping the ball gets out of the sand at all costs. But according to Norman, that’s counterintuitive.
Instead, he said the secret is to take a smooth swing to lift the ball out. Norman explained: “In a bunker shot, you don’t go in there and you dig at the ball and try and hit into it hard. The bunker shot is a very smooth, free-flowing swing.
“What you’re trying to do is get the sand between the ball and the club face to throw it out that way. The ball very seldom touches the club face. It’s the sand that throws the ball out, and it just depends how hard you hit into the sand, is how hard or how much spin the ball comes out with.
“There are many bad faults with people in the bunkers. They get in there, and they grip the club too tight, they come in here and they go and move forward on the shot and dig into the sand. Notice there’s a big divot where they’ve tried to get the ball out?
“The big fault that the weekend players have is they come in here and instead of staying down with the ball they come up and they rifle it right over the top of the green so what we’re trying to do with the bunker shot is come in here and just swing at it nice and smooth.
“Let your hands come into the sand, and let it keep going through. Don’t try and force the club head through the sand. Let your hands bring the club head through slowly. We’re trying to just flop it out.
“We got to grip the club very lightly. That’s another important thing, grip the club loosely. Because as soon as you start taking the club head away, you’re going to tighten up anyway, and the more you tighten your grip the more you’re going to swing shorter and the faster you’re going to come down.
“So what we do is we have a nice loose grip, we lay our club face back flat, and we just treat it nice and relaxed and just flop the club head into the ball.”
It may go against every instinct to hit the ball softly out of the sand, but take it from a man who won 88 times in his professional career!
Bryson DeChambeau advised golfers how to hit out of plugged lies
While Bryson DeChambeau is known for his long-driving, hard-hitting style, the most famous shot of his career came out of the bunker. DeChambeau won the US Open from the bunker with a delicate touch, and he agrees with Norman that hitting it hard isn’t the key.
And that even goes for when the ball is plugged, which he explained on his YouTube channel:
“I like to put the heel in so it’s going underneath, and it’s almost like a small little chip shot. So when there’s not much behind it, you don’t have to hit it as hard.
“People try and hit it too hard when it’s a plugged lie, hit it softer and feel like you’re getting that heel into the ground so the club can go underneath the ball.”
When DeChambeau is telling you not to hit it hard, it must be the right advice!
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