Easy Out of Green-side Bunkers

Brinson Paolini explains that bunker shots are different than other ones because the ball comes out on a bed of sand. He emphasizes that setup is super important. He recommends that in practice you work in a station and use a wide stance, ball off the inside of the lead heel, flared lead foot, dig into the sand, read the firmness of the sand, lead knee out toward target on angle of lead foot, and sit down more. He suggests that you open the clubface and use a specialty grip – the butterfly grip where the lead hand is strong and the trail one is weak. Once in solid position, let the butterfly grip set your wrists as you throw the club underneath the ball. You don’t need to use lower body. It’s all arms, hands, and speed in clubface.

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ABOUT BRINSON PAOLINI

Thanks for stopping by! I created this YouTube Channel and a separate website to share what I learned through three decades of playing competitively and helping others learn our great sport. And I’m committed to teaching all levels of players in short, bite-sized videos that you can easily understand and digest.

There’s too much conflicting information in the golf instruction realm and it’s hard for amateurs to sort through and know what’s best for them. I’m here to simply it and put it in terms that you can use. Beware, though, that if you’re after a quick fix then I’m not your coach. I take a wholistic approach focusing on your swing tendencies and natural movements as well as the sciences of fitness, psychology, neuroscience, and mental toughness. I access the very best contributors, so you have all the information you need to reach your golfing goals.

I played college golf at Duke where I was a two-time playing All-American as well as a CoSIDA academic All-American. I received the Byron Nelson Award, presented to the nation’s top-graduating senior. I then competed professionally for eight years around the world on DP World Tour and others.

I hold an undergraduate degree in Psychology from Duke and an MBA from William and Mary. My book titled “The Practice of Golf” is available on Amazon.

Let’s get to work!

easy way to hit bunker shots. When I see folks struggle in the bunker, typically it starts with their concept of what’s happening in the bunker. So, this is very different than any other shot in golf. You’re not actually hitting the golf ball. You’re hitting a bed of sand and the ball is going to travel on that bed of sand as it gets out of the bunker. So, once you understand that, that will really help. From there, the majority of bunker shots come from our setup. Once we get into a really good setup position, then they become much easier. And how I like to explain it to folks is I like to create a station in the bunker. You’re not allowed to touch the sand when you’re playing. So only do this when you’re practicing. But typically what I do is I draw a line for my target line in the sand. So it’s going to be parallel to my target line. And then I draw another line perpendicular to it for my ball position. First place I like to start is we could put that golf ball on that line to show my ball position. And first thing we need to understand in bunkers is we want to get really wide in our in our stance. So nice and wide. And we want this ball position just inside our lead heel. and make sure you flare that lead heel out towards the target nice and wide. And then we’re going to dig into the sand. Now, one, that’s for stability, but two, it gives us the ability to read the sand. Is it firm or is it soft? Now, that’s going to help us understand what type of shot we’re trying to hit. If it’s really soft, then we’re going to need to deliver the club a little bit closer to the golf ball. And if it’s firm, we can go a little bit more behind it. So, we’re digging in for stability. From here, I want you to feel as though your lead knee is going out towards on the angle of that lead foot. and then sit down nice and low. So, we’re sitting nice and low almost like I was sitting on a stool like I’m getting really, really low. So, that’s our body position. Now, let’s talk about the club. So, the club, the first thing is we got to get this club face open like all short game shots. So, spin this club open. And then from there, you can take your grip. There’s also a specialty grip for these shots that I really like, which is called the butterfly grip. So, if you take your normal grip like this, what you’re going to do is you’re going to take your lead hand and strengthen it. Take your trail hand and weaken it. it. We call it the butterfly grip because if I open it up, it looks like a butterfly. What that does is it puts my wrist in a perfect position to get a ton of wrist set and a lot of openness in that face, which is what we want in these shots. So, once we get into that nice solid setup position, from there, all we’re doing is letting that butterfly grip set our wrists properly, open the face, and then just throw the club underneath the ball. So, you’re catching that nice bed of sand. So, like I said, the setup is is the majority of what we’re doing here. So, nice wide stance, leaning that foot out. We’re sitting nice and low, club face open, butterfly grip. Now, once I’m in this position, I’m essentially done. All I have to think about is I’m going to crank this club up with tons of wrist set, which the butterfly grip’s going to help me do that. And then I’m just going to throw the club underneath it. So, you don’t need any lower body here. It’s all arms and hands and speed in the club face to get that ball out of the sand like this. So, just watch me hit this shot here. Tons of of set in my wrist. I’m just going to throw the club underneath the ball to get this thing out of the bunker.