Phil Mickelson shares three key tips on how to play bunker shots like a professional and says where amateur golfers always go wrong

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If there is one thing that amateur golfers should try to learn from Phil Mickelson, it’s his short game.

You don’t win six major championships without having excellent all-around play, but his ability from off the greens has always stood out.

Mickelson has so many variations of shots from bunkers, fairways, and rough that it’s almost impossible for an amateur to comprehend.

However, the 54-year-old expertly broke down how to hit bunker shots like him and what most people get wrong.

• READ MORE: What Jon Rahm says amateur golfers do that is so frustrating when he plays alongside them that is actually ‘easily fixable’

Phil Mickelson tells amateur golfers how to play bunker shots

Mickelson’s bunker tips might seem complicated because he provided such detailed analysis.

He provided three key tips to succeed in the sand (stance, bounce, and speed), which should definitely help amateurs be less fearful.

“Bunker play is critical, and it all starts with the setup because if you don’t set up properly, you are destined to fail,” Mickelson explained. “What I feel you have to do is get your ball position and your weight forward, which helps drive the club down into the ground.

“Also, we need to use the bounce of the club, and to do that, we need to lay the club flat so that the bounce interacts with the sand. This is important because when we have our weight and ball position forward and lay the club flat, we don’t have to do a lot of work in the swing. All we’re going to do is drive the club down into the sand right behind the ball, and the bounce kicks it through, and you can see the divot shallows out.

“Where people make mistakes is that they don’t use enough loft, they don’t lay the club flat, which is getting the leading edge to go into the sand and dig. That’s not what you want.

“Also, people put the ball in the middle of their stance, which forces their weight to be level. And what happens then is the bounce hits the sand and doesn’t have enough downward direction to get underneath the ball fully, and it’s hard to hit behind the ball when the ball is in the middle of your stance. Because now you’re making an entry into the sand almost off your back foot.

“Now, if we have firm sand, we’re going to have all of our weight forward. If we have fluffy sand, we’re going to have about 60% of our weight forward. It’s going to be based on the texture of the sand.

“Because I’m never making direct contact with the ball, the club and ball are never actually interacting, the club is going underneath the ball, and sand is always in between, I need to use speed. I need to swing fairly fast to get the ball out. There’s no slowdown, there’s only acceleration.”

Phil Mickelson chases career Grand Slam at US Open

Rory McIlroy became just the seventh man to complete the career Grand Slam when he won The Masters in April.

Then, Jordan Spieth had another chance to extend the list at last week’s PGA Championship, and he was not able to.

Many fans may not know that Mickelson is actually next in line to have a crack at the historic achievement.

He’s won three Masters, two PGA Championships, and one Open Championship, but never the US Open in his illustrious career.

The 54-year-old has finished runner-up six times, so it’s not like he hasn’t performed well at the event. Will he finally do it at Oakmont?