Flip through the latest issue of Gulf Weekly.
Fairway bunker shots can be the subject of endless torment for so many golfers as they see strokes getting flittered away during the course of the round due to the hazard they present.
But it doesn't have to be that way! There are some simple things you can do and mindsets you can adopt that can help to minimise the damage fairway bunkers can do to your score.
Here are some technical points to consider when playing out of fairway bunkers, the correct technique is to actually play the shot as if you were on the fairway and a good quality strike will produce the same result, the only difference is a slight mishit will result in a much poorer shot!
Firstly though you must make a judgment on the quality of the lie and the severity of the lip that you have to clear. You must choose a club with enough loft to safely clear the lip even if that results in the ball falling short of the target, so it is important that you must let your circumstances dictate your club selection.
If the lie is good and the lip height allows you to go for the green how do you approach the shot from a mental standpoint? During a lesson earlier in the week I discussed with a pupil the need to swing the club in the same way on and off the fairway, but the very fact he was in the sand and his preconceptions about the shot's difficulty actually inhibited his swing to the point that his swing was unrecognisable to the action he normally is able to produce. His state of mind actually changed his technique!
A great example of how we think can directly affect the way we swing! The antidote is to use your imagination: a) use your imagination to project an image of the ball being well struck and flying to the target; b) imagine the sand is green and you're hitting from grass, in other words you must convince your brain that you are actually hitting off the fairway!
The result will be a free, uninhibited swing giving you the best possible chance of making a difficult looking shot look easy!
