Getting out is paramount, but regulating distance is pretty important, too.
Tere’s a lot of trust involved in golf. Instincts often make you think you have to do the opposite of what you’re supposed to do. For example, slicers often swing more away from the direction of the slice to try to reduce the curve when actually, they should swing more towards the slice to eliminate that banana ball. You get the idea.
In bunkers, the notion that you have to make a big swing for such a short shot can seem weird. But if you don’t commit to following through, the result is typically a shot that doesn’t leave the bunker. Regulating distance from greenside sand is primarily about the through-swing. You have to trust that if you make a healthy pass at the ball, it’s not going to fly miles over the green. Remember that by entering the sand behind the ball, all that energy you created quickly dissipates. If you don’t keep swinging, you won’t have enough oomph to get the ball on the green.
Generally speaking, you don’t need to change the length of your backswing, which allows you to focus on the follow-through. The further you are from the hole, the longer your follow-through should be. When you swing down, rotate your upper body to control the momentum, land the clubhead an inch or two behind the ball and keep turning. If you focus on where you want the swing to end, you’ll naturally accelerate through the sand [photo above].
Experiment with various through-swing lengths to see how far the ball goes and start to develop a system you can easily employ for different distance. However, you should at least let the shaft reach parallel with the ground in the follow-through [photo below] to ensure you have enough power to get the ball out. That’s always goal No.1.
David Leadbetter is one of Golf Digest’s Legends of Golf Instruction.
