The 5-Minute Bunker Setup That Changes Everything

I've given a lot of bunker lessons, and one of the most common things that I see is players want to get their pressure to their lead side, and to do it, what they end up doing is they drive their pelvis and their hips this way, right, and drive it to that lead side, boom. Well, when they do that, what happens to the upper body? It tilts back, right shoulder gets low, left shoulder gets high, and the low point gets lost. Stick around. In this video, I'm going to show you how to set up the golf ball appropriately and get your pressure to your left side so you can get the ball out of the bunker onto the green. So like I said, I see a lot of players, they're trying so hard to get their pressure to their left side at address that they slide and drive, right? And so they slide, drive the hips, they collapse the trail side, everything gets collapsed. This way, low point gets lost. So how do we fix it? Okay, so what I want players to feel is I want them to feel like instead of driving the hips towards the target, They're actually gonna drive the hips away from the target and allow the chest to rotate a little bit. open okay so that the the chest for a right-handed player is going to be aimed a little left of the target and the chest is also going to be pointed out here in front of the golf ball because we want the low point to be on the target side of the golf ball. hear me out we're still going to hit behind the ball we're going to hit the sand behind the ball but we're going to continue the low point down to the target side of the golf ball. So, at address, instead of driving to the left, we're going to take these hips, we're going to slide them actually away from the target this way. Notice how my chest goes this way, right, and my chest stays, opens up. Now my ribs are in front of my pelvis, I'm on my left side, I have pressure to the left without driving the hips. That's a pretty cool thing. So as we're here, slide the hips away from the target, let the chest open. Now we have pressure on the left. I think you can see that in the camera. It looks like I'm aggressive. Looks like I'm on my left side. I'm not hanging back on the right. When you do this and you slide those hips to the right, I don't want you to slide everything to the right. That's inappropriate. Now our low point is still going to be way back here. We're going to keep the chest this way. So bump those hips back. Okay. It feels like my right hip got a little taller. Feels like my shoulders are a little more level. So we're this way, we're down on it, now we have control of the low point, it is not lost, and we can make a nice swing and a good pass at this. Nice high bunker shot. Now, I'm guilty of this. I have a hip drive that I try to fix as well. So in my full swing I like to drive those hips. So on these bunker shots when I'm practicing, even some of these you might see today, Today you might still see a little bit of drive. The difference is if I had started here and then drove, there's no way I would have hit a good bunker shot. So I'm at least starting out in a position that allows me, even if I bump a little bit, it allows me to still get that ball out. I'm going to take those hips, bump them back, allow the chest to rotate open a little bit, ribs in front of pelvis, chest in front of pelvis, get it this way, make a nice swing, here we go. Stay on that left side. That was probably the best bunker shot I've hit in a while. What does it look like from down the line? Okay, from down the line, this is what it'll look like. So if a player, or maybe it's you, maybe not, but if you take your hips and you drive them forward, this is what it'll look like. Boom. And you notice how my right shoulder went down. My right knee collapsed. Got a lot of tilt. Okay. We're going to do the opposite. We're going to take our hips and our pelvis. We're going to drive them away from the target. Allow that chest to open. Okay. So now the chest is open. It's pointed out in front of the ball this way. I'm going to set up. Hips away. Okay. Slid away from target twisted. Now we're going to come through. Try not to slide on it. Make a good pass. And I And I hit that one a little thin. Let's try that again. So we're here, we're going to take the hips, drive them back, allow the chest to open, make a good pass. Wonderful. And that was a good shot. The whole purpose of this is to control low point. If we can control low point in the bunker, we can become pretty good bunker players. Once more, don't set up to a golf ball and drive your hips towards the target. Drive them away, let the chest get over that lead side, even lean a little bit toward the lead side when you do it. Okay, so I go hips away, hips away, chest over the lead side. Now I keep the chest over the lead side as my hips are away. Nice high bunker shot. Hope this helps. Leave a comment, like, subscribe, you know the drill. I'd like to have you around for this journey. I'll see you soon.