Welcome to Play Smart, a regular GOLF.com game improvement column that will help you become a smarter, better golfer.
I’ve played muni golf all my life. I was never a country club guy and even the courses I took in high school were rough around the edges. Range balls with worn dimples. Placing greens that looked like fluffy carpet. That was the norm.
These less than ideal conditions forced me to learn how to make some shots that I otherwise would not have made. Lobs of the hardpan. Chips from divots. Putts through craters on the greens. You get the picture.
By the time I started working in golf and gained access to nicer practice facilities, I had taught myself quite a few useful shots. However, one shot still eluded me after all these years: the short-sided bunker shot from firm sand.
Luckily for me, one of our Top 100 Teachers, Joe Plecker, grew up as a muni kid himself. And when I approached him wanting to learn more about how to properly perform this recording, he quickly taught me his secrets.
An easy technique for an impossible shot
Whenever I was confronted with a short-sided bunker shot from hard sand, I always felt sick to my stomach. I knew I would either let the club slide into the back of the ball or overcorrect and catch too much sand and leave it in the bunker.
In hard sand, it is important to get a steep angle of attack to get the club head into the sand and shoot the ball out. But if you do this, it can easily cause the leading edge to get stuck and catch too much sand.
To execute the shot properly, Plecker suggests setting it up in two parts. First, you want a setup that promotes a steep angle of attack. Second, you want to grip the club in a way that ensures an open clubface.
For the first element, Plecker says to set up with your upper body tilted direction the goal.
“This forward upper body position is going to help us maintain a very steep angle [of attack],” says Plecker.
Then it’s time to place your hands on the handle. Plecker likes to see a very neutral grip with the leading hand for this.
“I want to see your guiding hand in a neutral position,” Plecker says. “Imagine your left hand pointing all the way along the top line of the grip. That’s your finesse position, which means it’s a lot easier to open the club from there.”
From here you just need to concentrate on turning and hinging the club towards the top. Don’t feel like you’re bidding, turn your whole body.
“This is the secret to making a finesse bunker shot,” says Plecker. “The first step is to cast that club.”
If you do it right, the club will cut into the sand and make the ball bounce up and out of the bunker.
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