How to Hit the Perfect Sand Shot in Golf

The Perfect Sand Shot in Golf

When it comes to hitting sand shots most golfers get terrified of the proposition of launching the golf ball over the green.  The reality is that bunker shots are the easiest shot in all of golf to learn. All you need to is learn these three simple keys.

Sand Shot Critical Key Number 1 - Loft

The most important key in hitting the perfect sand shot is learning how to get the face open enough at address and keep it open throughout the golf swing.  If you don't have enough loft on the club you will be forced to take a short slow swing and will have a difficult time moving enough sand to get the ball out of the sand trap. This is because you don't actually hit the golf ball in a sand shot, instead you use the force of the sand propelling the ball upward to move the ball up and onto the green.  The sand is quite heavy and that requires that you swing relatively fast in order to move enough sand to launch the golf ball up in the air. 

However, if you swing fast and don't have enough loft on the club the ball will fly over the green.  So setting up with enough loft is critical, and there's a simple drill in this video that will show you how to keep the club face open throughout the entire backswing so you can make an aggressive swing without the fear of launching the golf ball over to green.

Sand Shot Critical Key Number 2 - Speed

As I mentioned in before, one of the main keys in the perfect sand shot is having speed so you can move enough sand to the ball up in the air.  Having enough loft goes hand-in-hand with having enough speed.  You need a lot of loft in order to afford you the ability to be aggressive on your sand shots. This sand shot golf instruction video gives you one simple image to learn how to have enough speed on your bunker shots.

Sand Shot Critical Key Number 3 – Divot

The last thing you have to do is make certain that you take out the “box of sand.”  As discussed in the sand shot video, practicing taking out the box drill will teach you to where to start your divot and where to have the divot exit in the sand to the take out the proper amount of sand each time.  As you'll see having the proper amount of bounce and having the face open enough, is critical to taking out this perfect divot each time so you get the golf ball to come out nice and soft with a lot of spin.  Most amateur golfers tend to dig too deeply and the divot box drill will keep you from making this costly mistake.

If you can master these three simple keys you will have no problem getting out of the sand trap any time. If you want to see the entire "How to Hit Sand Shots" section from the DVD "Short Game Made Simple", click here!

The Perfect Golf Swing - Lag and How to Get More of It!

If you're like most golfers, you find that developing more lag in your golf swing is a struggle. You know that you need lag in the perfect golf swing, but exactly how do you get it? First, there's one thing that you MUST NOT DO...

DON'T TRY AND HOLD ON TO LAG

This is one of the worst mistakes you can ever make in the golf swing. If you had to have a mantra about the perfect golf swing it would be this: "You never try and HOLD a position in the perfect swing, you are always MOVING THROUGH positions."

Creating lag adheres strictly to this rule. One of the most common mistakes a I see golfers make in perfecting their golf swings is trying to create a significant lag angle at the top of their backswings and then "hold on to it" throughout the entire downswing.

The opposite should be your goal. You should NOT have your wrists fully set at the top of your golf swing so that they can set MORE during the downswing. When your wrists are fully cocked at the top, they have nowhere else to do during the downswing but to cast the club. In an effort to avoid this, golfers are taught by their instructors to "hold on" to the angle. the problem is this is not possible. There are far too many forces at work physics wise to make it impossible to hold onto the angle.

For instance, a driver swung at over 100 mph effectively weighs 100 pounds through impact because of the centrifugal force. If you think the you can physically hold onto this much force your sadly mistaken. Because of this there is only one logical solution. You need to have your wrists not fully set at the top swing so that they can downcock in the downswing so that as you're moving into positions later in the downswing where it's critical to have lag you have it in spades where you need it most.

The down cock is a critical move in the downswing that nearly every tour player on the planet uses to create the proper amount of lag and downswing. Some do it more than others but the critical component is that they all but created out cocking motion rather than trying to hold on to the angle that they created at the top of the backswing.

When you properly down cock your wrists like this student you see in the video below you will have more lag than you know what to do with and be much further along the path to building your perfect golf swing.



When you're ready create lag like this in your perfect golf swing click here to learn exactly how this student of mine built this much lag in his golf swing and how you can too.