Fairway Bunkers

Keep your lower body as still as possible when hitting a fairway bunker shot.

A quiet lower body will result in less spin of your hips. Anytime you spin your hips too much, and get your right side moving out and over, this will cause you to chop at the ball from a steep angle. Whenever you swing at a steep angle, especially in a fairway bunker, you have little chance of executing the shot properly. Instead, you need to swing from a shallow angle and pick the ball as clean as possible.

Here is what you should do when entering a fairway bunker:
Take one or two extra clubs. (Because it is a less aggressive swing, you will need to take extra club.)
Place the ball farther back in your stance than normal.
Dig in. Sand is slippery so you need to get to the bottom of it.
Swing while keeping your lower body as still as possible.

A couple of good images to help achieve this are to:
-Freeze your lower body like a camera tripod
-Pretend you are playing on ice
-Feel like your right shoulder remains stationary to begin the downswing

Use these thoughts on bunker shots from about 80 yards and up. Anything less than that is a separate issue altogether and takes a few adjustments.

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