With one final point needed to clinch the Solheim Cup, Matilda Castren lofted a short iron toward the 18th green at Inverness Club and watched helplessly as her ball drifted left and plunked into the bunker. When she arrived at her ball, she was greeted with another ugly sight: a nasty fried-egg lie in the bunker.
Undeterred, Castren played a textbook escape from the fried-egg lie, blasting her ball onto the green and sinking the putt to retain the Cup for Europe. She made hitting the daunting shot look far easier than it was, but if you know the proper technique, you can hit the shot, too.
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In this week’s episode of How to Hit Every Shot, GOLF Top 100 Teacher Lou Guzzi explains the 5 steps for blasting out of this nasty lie.
1. Club selection
The first thing you need to do is pick the correct club. For a fried egg, try using your sand wedge or lob wedge.
2. Use the leading edge
With a high-lofted wedge in your hand, you’ll want to use the leading edge to blast the ball out. This is counterintuitive for what you normally see out of the bunker, but with a lie like this, you’ll need to dig to get it out.
3. Back of the stance
Instead of putting the ball forward in your stance like a normal bunker shot, put the ball in the middle to back of your stance. This position will make it easier to dig the leading edge into the sand to get the ball out.
4. Forward shaft lean
Just like playing the ball in the back of your stance, leaning the shaft forward will allow you to dig into the sand and blast the ball out.
5. Stay aggressive
Now all you need to do is stay aggressive. Make sure to dig the leading edge into the sand behind the ball and complete your swing with conviction. If you do all of this correctly, you should see your ball fly out of the bunker and onto the green.
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