Bunker shots are some of the most challenging shots for recreational golfers. And much of that struggle comes from a lack of practice.
Finding a suitable place to practice bunker shots can be difficult. Most public courses don’t have manicured short-game practice areas to fine-tune the technique needed to properly hit shots from the sand. As a result, the only bunker practice many golfers get happens when they find one on the course.
This isn’t very efficient if you hope to become a proficient sand player. Bunker shots require a technique that isn’t used anywhere else on the course, and lots of learning the proper technique comes from trial and error. If the only time you’re hitting bunker shots is when you find the sand during a round, you aren’t going to be a very good bunker player.
Hitting a solid bunker shot requires you to use your hands and arms in a very specific way — and most golfers never get taught the proper feeling. Champions Tour pro KJ Choi has a fix for that, and it comes in the form of a bizarre-looking bunker drill.
KJ Choi’s bizarre bunker drill
If your first reaction to watching Choi’s drill was, “What the heck is he doing?” you’re not alone. Typically, you’ll see someone use their clubhead as a hammer after hitting a poor bunker shot, not as a training exercise.
But while the drill might look odd, it provides some key benefits for the feel needed to hit bunker shots when done correctly.
If you watch the video with sound, you’ll notice the sound the clubhead makes when thumping into the sand is very similar to the sound made when you hit a proper bunker shot. That’s because the clubhead is contacting the sand at a very similar angle in both instances.
“You hit the ground at exactly 90 degrees [at impact],” Choi says.
When you swing the club straight down into the sand like a hammer, you’re also forced to replicate the angle of the shaft on a bunker shot. When you hit a bunker shot the right way, your hands are in line with the shaft and clubhead at impact. And when you do this drill correctly, you have to create the exact same angle.
“Some people have the grip wrong and the angle wrong,” Choi says. “The hands are too [far] to the left. So we get in the bunker and get the grip first and the angle straight down.”
If you can replicate how the clubhead impacts the sand and the angle of the shaft during the hammer drill when you’re hitting bunker shots, you’ll soon be hitting better bunker shots than you ever knew was possible. Give it a shot.
