Fried eggs… good for breakfast but bad for your scorecard. You know the deal: Your ball is buried in the bunker, surrounded by a ridge of sand. Your first thought may be to add as much loft as you can at setup to lift the ball out. Trust me and millions of others — that rarely works.
In this situation, you need more of a scooping action, and to get that scoop you actually need to close the clubface at address. I mean really close it (as pictured in the middle photo below). Turn the toe in a lot. It may sound counterintuitive to what you’re trying to accomplish, but when your club enters the sand, the club will naturally open (picture an ice cream scooper) and give you the loft you need to get the ball up and out.
Turning the toe in should tell you that this is anything but your garden-variety sweeping sand shot. With a fried egg, you need to dig — and dig deep. In fact, you should think about pounding the sand so hard that you’re barely able to make a full and complete finish. The more you feel the leading edge of your wedge gouging the sand, the better.
Again, the clubface will open as a natural reaction to entering the sand. The lift will be there. Swing hard, with lots of thrust. Think scoop not skim. Anything else could mean hitting yet another shot from the same bunker.
Derek Swoboda is the director of instruction at John’s Island Club in Vero Beach, Fla.
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