How do you hit a bunker shot? First, read your lie. If there's sand under the ball, take your lob wedge. Put about 60% of your weight on your front foot and tilt your upper body back a little. Hold the club square, then open the face with your forearms, not by twisting your hands. Then make a short, aggressive swing that spanks the sand and stops. The sand lifts the ball out. Don't scoop it, and don't make a big follow-through.

Here's the full recipe for the standard greenside bunker shot, plus the long one and the fried egg.

Golf Shot Recipe: Blasty McBlast Face, the soft, rolling greenside bunker shot.

Step 1: read the lie before anything else

Whenever you're in the bunker, or anywhere else on the course, analyze your lie first. Do you have a good lie? Is there sand underneath it, so you can play a blast shot and let the sand pick it up? Or is it hard pan? Are you buried?

You're not allowed to test the sand with your club, but you can feel through your feet how much sand there is. The lie decides which shot you can play. With a good lie, you can hit whatever shot you want.

Then read the landing. In the recipe above, I've got about 10 yards to carry onto a flat spot, and the green goes away to the left at the hole. So the most predictable play is a high shot with very little spin that lands softly and rolls out to the hole.

Step 2: set up weight forward, tilted back

• Club: lob wedge for the standard greenside shot.
• Ball: about the middle to slightly forward in your stance.
• Shoulders: level them to the slope. On an upslope, stand up a little taller.
• Weight: about 60/40 on your front foot, so you can dig into the sand.
• Tilt: lean your upper body back just a little, because you want the ball to go high. Weight forward, but tilt back.

Step 3: open the face with your forearms (the pancake flipper)

This is the part most people get wrong. Hold the club square first. Then open it, but not by twisting it in your hands.

Open it with your forearms. Almost tuck your trail elbow into your stomach and let your lead forearm sit over your trail forearm. As soon as you do that, the club face opens up and lies back, a little bit like a pancake flipper. That presets the club to release really nicely and spank the sand.

Then aim. If the slope will make the ball squirt out a little left, aim a touch right. Pick your landing spot so the ball rolls to the hole.

Step 4: spank the sand, short follow-through

Keep the stroke simple, with very little wrist. If you're in my simple chipping program, it's simple chip number three for length. Aggressive, but short.

Spank the sand and let the sand fluff the ball into the air. I don't want a full follow-through. I want you to stop. All of that energy goes down into the sand, not into the follow-through. Add a good dose of confidence and you've got it.

The long bunker shot and the fried egg

The 40-yard bunker shot. This is a really challenging one, and it comes down to club selection. Instead of the sand wedge or lob wedge, I play a gap wedge (or a pitching wedge) like a bunker shot. Set up square, as if you're hitting it right at the target, aim a touch left, open it with your arms, and take a big old swing. A longer wedge gives you more club head speed, which is why the long bunker shots get easier. I wrote about that in Same Length Wedges.

The long bunker shot: a gap wedge played like a bunker shot.

The fried egg (plugged in the lip). You're not allowed to build a stance, but you do have to stand somewhere. Take the lob wedge, turn it closed, and hit down behind the ball so you scoop up all the sand and the ball comes out with it. You've got to swing pretty hard.

The fried egg: turn the lob wedge closed and hit down hard behind it.

The tight downhill lie. Sidehill to a short pin? Open it way up, aim a little left, ride it down the slope, and tilt over with your upper body a little more than normal.

The bunker drill: the same shot, three lies

1. Pick a standard greenside shot with a good lie, flat landing, about 10 yards of carry.
2. Rehearse the setup out loud: weight forward, tilt back, hold square, open with the forearms.
3. Hit five balls with a short, aggressive spank and a stopped follow-through. Watch where the sand goes, not just the ball.
4. Change one thing. Try an upslope (stand up taller), then a firmer patch of sand.
5. Finish with three long ones using a gap wedge, set up square and aimed a touch left.

FAQ: hitting a bunker shot

What wedge should I use in a bunker?

For a standard greenside shot, I use a lob wedge. For a long bunker shot, I go to a gap wedge or pitching wedge. Bounce matters too. With my Avoda W3, which has more bounce, I can't open it nearly as much in tight bunkers with not a lot of sand, so I close it up a little to let the bounce work. If you play firm bunkers a lot, maybe you're more of a W1 person. Here's how I'd choose: W1 vs W2 vs W3. I used the W2 in the recipe video above. My Avoda link is avodagolf.com/davidbuck.

How far behind the ball do you hit a bunker shot?

I don't think about an exact distance. I think about spanking the sand with an open face and letting the sand lift the ball out. Your setup, with weight forward and the face opened by the forearms, takes care of where the club enters.

How do you hit out of soft sand vs hard sand?

Soft vs firm sand needs a different setup, and the bounce on your wedge changes how you play it. In firm, thin sand, open the face less with a higher-bounce wedge. With a lower-bounce wedge you can open it more and still get under the ball.

How do you open the club face in a bunker?

Hold it square, then open it with your forearms: trail elbow tucked, lead forearm over trail. Don't just twist the grip open.

How do you get out of a plugged lie?

Close the lob wedge, hit down hard behind the ball, and let the sand push it out.

Still struggling around the greens once you're out? Read How to Chip a Golf Ball.

Want to get out every time? Simple Bunker Play is my easy-to-follow system for the bunker shots you actually face on the course: simple setup, technique and shot selection, plus what to change when the lie changes. Go spank some sand this week and let me know how it goes.

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