The final major of the year is upon us. We caught up with Matt Jordan to get some tips hitting from different lies in the bunker. Let us know what you think!
Right guys, we’re here at Gullan joined by DP World Tour professional Matt Jordan. And Matt’s doing some prep for the next couple of weeks, Scottish Open, the Open coming up. And Matt, I want to talk about a couple of the challenges that you might be facing. Like I know you grew up playing Lynx golf, but I want to pick up some tips myself as well. So we’re going to hop straight in this bunker and um what is some of the challenges that you could be facing? Typically in these links bunkers where they’re high riveted faces, you get couple of different slopes in the bunker. But what are the challenges of this? Yeah. So, typically in your kind of uh link style golf courses, you know, we all know about the term pot bunkers. Yeah. So, not only are they they obviously very steep, but the lies that you find yourself in are actually they’re never normally, you know, flat lie and sitting nicely. It’s the way that the the land gathers it, it can end up just trickling in the back edge, running up the face and stopping there. So, um, normally there’s kind of different lies. You you’ll see more. So, yeah. Um, okay. On a link bunker. Well, let’s hop in there then and let’s try one. So, I’m going to give you going to give you the ups slope first. So, you got up slope here, Matt. Decent lie actually to this front pin. Would you say this is kind of shortsided cuz everything’s moving away, isn’t it? Yeah, it is a bit a bit bit away from us. Obviously, the wind if anything’s going down slightly, but obviously with then with the ups slope Yeah. It doesn’t seem that difficult of a shot, does it really? It just you kind of you’ve got you’ve got the elevation built in and you can just pop that out and you can uh So, you’re looking at this shot thinking up slope, it’s going to help me pop it up and uh it’s almost giving you a helping hand. I Yeah, I I I think so. I mean, any anytime you’re on an ups slope is certainly when you’re shortsided is is great. One one and common theme sometimes is thankfully this bump has kind of sloped quite quite nicely in the gradient, but sometimes you can be right up against the face. Uh-huh. So, you obviously have the upstroke, but to be able to get it up high enough is is difficult. Say, fortunately, in this situation, it’s not quite the same. Um, how would you play this one then? Are you changing the tilt with your body? Are you changing anything? Yeah, basically when it when it when it comes to this kind of thing, whether you’re down slope, up slope, it is just about how you set up. Yeah. So, for me, yeah, the way the tilt and then and then I just play the shot. So, I build it all in in my stance to begin with and then once I’ve done that, then it’s kind of a very similar thing to what I would do anywhere else in here. Got you. Come on then. Let’s see this one. No warm up. Straight in there. Straight in. Yeah. Throwing it at the deep end. So, I’ve just built my stance. I’m kind of gone with the slope. Yeah. And then really I wouldn’t really have to open the face up too much here because as I say, the elevation come already. If I do that then I feel like I’d almost go underneath it in a way. So, and I would wouldn’t be able to hit it very far. So, I don’t even have to open the face that much. Lovely. And I nearly got blown up, but that actually plays. Okay, I saw that. There was a huge girth and I was thinking send the guys out the back cuz it could be a mis time strike here. But perfect. They played that so well. You can see how high and soft that one came out. Strike was perfect. Back of the bunker now. Yeah, obviously you can get these ones, can’t they? when they just they just trickle in and it just leaves yourself just on this down slope. Wind is blowing us away, landing on the down slope. This is a different set of issues now, isn’t it? Yeah, this is Yeah, we’ve gone from naugh to 100 really quick here. You’ve uh you’re not helping me out much with this job. But yeah, I mean, as I say with the land, sometimes it can the ball can start over there and the way the it goes, it just all all of a sudden ends up and then you get here and you find yourself with a lie like this and you think, “Oh no, why? I much prefer Parkland Golf, but um but no, so this this again is is very much the same. I mean, again, with Lynx golf, sometimes you’ll find yourself with a a knee outside the bunker, a foot outside. So, just building your stance in and around it. Um and then certainly when it comes to a down a downhill lie, it’s to not try and lift it. I mean, there’s so many people I see at my own club kind of want to back up. They think, “Oh, I need to get height on it. Back up, fat it in the face.” So it’s almost like what you’ve done there, you’re going the opposite now. So you’re going with the slope again. Yeah. So that one I feel like I can just move with it and it’s it’s quite simple. Whereas this one I do think you need to make more of a conscious effort to to make sure you go with it cuz as soon as you don’t you’re just going to lose the strike completely. Got we got we got this one in the locker then. Of course. Well, we’ll have a go. We’ll have a go. Yeah, it isn’t as easy as it comes. So yes, I’m So you’re really leaning into that lead. Yeah, I’ve got quite a wide stance just to give myself a piece with the wind the way it is as well. And then I’m just really leaning into it. And I’m trying not to back off at all. That is so good, mate. That’s unreal. And I will take that. And you can see how Don’t ask me to anymore. I think we’re done, are we? Should we cut the cameras down? You can see how much you pick that club up there as well to try and get up and over that lip, get a little bit steeper to to get that ball up into the air, right? Yeah. Yeah. I mean, as I say, it’s um with the lie being so downhill. Yeah. I mean, naturally, I’m not necessarily thinking of that, but I probably did that consciously or subconsciously, I should say, to uh to make sure I get that kind of strike on it. Perfect. Right, we’re two from two. We’re going to see if you can keep it up with three three. I’m going to give you this this one, Matt. This horrible fried egg. Okay, I’m going to be really harsh here. You’re not feeling very nice today, are you? You’ve just gone from here to here. You didn’t didn’t have a nice breakfast this morning. But fried eggs. Now we’ve got This one is absolutely terrible. That was bad, wasn’t it? That was bad. Anyway, anyway, fried egg. We’re going to stick with it. This one is buried. And obviously, we’re more up the face now. So, how how are we going about this one? Cuz this is a serious scenario that we can get next week. Yeah. I mean, thankfully, you haven’t thrown it in hard enough to create like a big enough kind of fried egg, as you say. Yeah. Um, so here I’m basically just I I probably would I probably will square the face a bit, but you I mean, you see people go almost too much. I’m not I’m mainly just trying to keep it square. And then because again, I still I’m on an ups slope and I can still get to the ball. It’s not I’m not actually going to necessarily probably with this shot change too much. Okay. I’m just really going to concentrate on where I’m trying to strike it. I can stand on it a bit more if you want me to. No, you’re all right. Come on then. Let’s do this one then. So, square base. So, I’m going to go square face even if anything slightly open. Okay. This one I might tiltwise I might go slightly further left just so I can get get to my point. And then similar thing that popped out so nice, didn’t it? And if you expected me to stop that shot of the flag, then you might as well interview someone else. Matt, so thanks so much for for doing that. That was awesome. Three unbelievable shots, ladies and gents.
