Phil Mickelson has made it very clear that there is one very specific thing amateur golfers need to do in order to get out of bunkers more consistently.
Bunker play is most amateur golfers’ kryptonite, but now one of the best to ever do it out of the sand, Phil Mickelson, has offered some utterly brilliant advice to help with the problem.
Pat Perez recently described Mickelson as the best bunker player of all-time, and it’s hard to argue against that statement.
Mickelson is well known for playing some exceptional bunker shots throughout his career, and now he has opened up on how amateurs can improve out of the sand.
The six-time major champion has shared a tip which will help the higher handicap golfers extricate themselves from bunkers.
Phil Mickelson’s key tip will help amateurs get out of bunkers
There really is nobody better to learn from about bunker play than the 55-year-old LIV Golf star.
When speaking to Golf Digest, Mickelson explained how to tackle bunker shots when the sand is tight and compact.
He said: “In packed sand you don’t want your wedge to hit the ground too early and bounce into the middle of the ball.
“To prevent that, set your weight forward and tilt your spine towards the target.
“From there, you’ll automatically hit closer to the ball. You’re playing this shot with an open clubface, so you won’t have any trouble getting the ball up.
“I can’t emphasise enough that your weight has to stay forward on bunker shots from firm sand.”
That’s extremely simple advice from Mickelson, yet it could be very effective for amateurs if they practice what the 45-time PGA Tour winner has advised them to do.
Phil Mickelson on where amateur golfers go wrong out of bunkers
Mickelson finished second in sand save percentage on LIV Golf in 2025, getting the ball up and down out of bunkers 62.7% of the time.
And back in 2023, he explained exactly where he thinks amateur golfers go wrong out of the sand.
“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.”
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