• Downhill bunker shots are handled the same as any sand shot, with a couple added features
• Like any bunker shot, the ball should be a bit up in your stance
• Match your shoulder angle to the slope of the ground - this goes for either up or downhill
• Get a nice, wide stance with firm footing, match the slope and swing through

WEBVTT 1 00:00:05.740 --> 00:00:08.339 For most golfers, this downhill bunker 2 00:00:08.339 --> 00:00:11.939 shot is terrifying. So many bad things 3 00:00:11.939 --> 00:00:14.220 can happen. We can get the club entering 4 00:00:14.220 --> 00:00:16.760 the sand too soon. We can get it to not 5 00:00:16.760 --> 00:00:18.800 enter the sand at all and blade it and 6 00:00:18.800 --> 00:00:21.059 launch it across the green, maybe into 7 00:00:21.059 --> 00:00:22.679 our playing partners, into the crowd, 8 00:00:22.739 --> 00:00:24.859 whatever. It's a terrifying shot, but 9 00:00:24.859 --> 00:00:27.079 really it's super simple. I'm going to 10 00:00:27.079 --> 00:00:28.800 remind you of the three keys to bunker 11 00:00:28.800 --> 00:00:30.559 play first. Then I'm going to show you 12 00:00:30.559 --> 00:00:33.039 how to adjust some of those things to 13 00:00:33.039 --> 00:00:34.920 make the shot really, really easy for 14 00:00:34.920 --> 00:00:36.340 you. Now, if you remember, 15 00:00:36.880 --> 00:00:39.000 there's three critical components to 16 00:00:39.000 --> 00:00:42.079 bunker play. The first one, loft. Loft is 17 00:00:42.079 --> 00:00:44.500 your friend. Because you need to get the 18 00:00:44.500 --> 00:00:45.799 ball up in the air and you need to be 19 00:00:45.799 --> 00:00:47.460 able to swing aggressively. Because the 20 00:00:47.460 --> 00:00:49.759 second key is you're going to move about 21 00:00:49.759 --> 00:00:53.159 a shoe's worth of sand. Now, what do I 22 00:00:53.159 --> 00:00:55.859 mean by that? I wear a size 11, take a 23 00:00:55.859 --> 00:00:58.740 size 11 shoe print, draw a couple of 24 00:00:58.740 --> 00:01:01.320 lines here. That's about how much sand 25 00:01:01.320 --> 00:01:03.439 you're going to take out. And if you're 26 00:01:03.439 --> 00:01:05.019 going to swing hard enough to move that 27 00:01:05.019 --> 00:01:06.579 much sand, think about it as a couple 28 00:01:06.579 --> 00:01:08.340 handfuls of sand. It's got a lot of 29 00:01:08.340 --> 00:01:10.239 weight to it. Well, what do you need 30 00:01:10.239 --> 00:01:12.579 third? You need speed. So you put these 31 00:01:12.579 --> 00:01:14.140 three things together. You're going to 32 00:01:14.140 --> 00:01:15.459 take out a lot of sanks. You're never 33 00:01:15.459 --> 00:01:16.060 going to hit the ball. 34 00:01:16.780 --> 00:01:18.439 You need loft. So if you're going to 35 00:01:18.439 --> 00:01:20.340 swing that hard to have the speed, 36 00:01:21.200 --> 00:01:23.019 then you better have some loft. So the 37 00:01:23.019 --> 00:01:24.480 ball's going to not going to go very far. 38 00:01:24.480 --> 00:01:26.640 So as you're practicing, you can draw 39 00:01:26.640 --> 00:01:29.140 these lines in the sand and work on 40 00:01:29.140 --> 00:01:31.099 taking out. So you can see the club 41 00:01:31.099 --> 00:01:33.079 entered right there, exited right on the 42 00:01:33.079 --> 00:01:35.219 line. That's a normal bunker shot. That's 43 00:01:35.219 --> 00:01:36.340 how you know how to take the right amount 44 00:01:36.340 --> 00:01:39.280 of sand. So when you're doing this in a 45 00:01:39.280 --> 00:01:41.379 downhill bunker shot, what adjustments do 46 00:01:41.379 --> 00:01:43.700 you need to make to make this shot work? 47 00:01:44.140 --> 00:01:46.680 There's one critical adjustment that's 48 00:01:46.680 --> 00:01:47.719 going to make this shot really, really 49 00:01:47.719 --> 00:01:50.180 simple. The biggest thing is your spine 50 00:01:50.180 --> 00:01:51.640 angle. Now, you'll know that I've talked 51 00:01:51.640 --> 00:01:53.299 a lot about your spine. I'm very 52 00:01:53.299 --> 00:01:55.439 protective of your spine. And so when we 53 00:01:55.439 --> 00:01:57.939 talk about how we swing the club, we talk 54 00:01:57.939 --> 00:02:00.040 about how that spine's got to be set up 55 00:02:00.040 --> 00:02:02.099 and how it's got to rotate. In the 56 00:02:02.099 --> 00:02:05.340 bunker, setup is everything. We need to 57 00:02:05.340 --> 00:02:08.780 make sure that our spine is set close to 58 00:02:08.780 --> 00:02:10.919 perpendicular with that slope. So you can 59 00:02:10.919 --> 00:02:13.099 see that the slope I'm on is about like 60 00:02:13.099 --> 00:02:16.800 this. My spine needs to be about 90 61 00:02:16.800 --> 00:02:19.060 degrees to that slope. Where people make 62 00:02:19.060 --> 00:02:21.900 the mistake is they set up normally so 63 00:02:21.900 --> 00:02:23.699 their spine might be set up like this. 64 00:02:24.219 --> 00:02:25.400 And now what that's going to do? When 65 00:02:25.400 --> 00:02:27.599 you're on a downhill slope like this is, 66 00:02:27.599 --> 00:02:29.199 you're going to tend to hang back and 67 00:02:29.199 --> 00:02:31.819 enter the sand way behind that line. Now, 68 00:02:31.860 --> 00:02:33.400 I know what you're thinking, in case you 69 00:02:33.400 --> 00:02:35.120 forgot this already, where does this 70 00:02:35.120 --> 00:02:38.319 line, this box all start? Well, the 71 00:02:38.319 --> 00:02:40.479 middle of the box, about where the ball 72 00:02:40.479 --> 00:02:41.479 is going to be, the ball is going to be 73 00:02:41.479 --> 00:02:43.460 just behind the center of the box, or 74 00:02:43.460 --> 00:02:46.259 center of the line of the box, should be 75 00:02:46.259 --> 00:02:48.560 about off the left instep. Now, you can 76 00:02:48.560 --> 00:02:51.080 play with this to start taking out a 77 00:02:51.080 --> 00:02:52.300 certain amount of sand that you want to 78 00:02:52.300 --> 00:02:53.759 take. I like to take out very little 79 00:02:53.759 --> 00:02:56.319 sand. I want to take a nice, clean, crisp 80 00:02:56.319 --> 00:02:57.699 divot because that's going to allow me to 81 00:02:57.699 --> 00:02:59.000 put the most spin on the ball. 82 00:02:59.740 --> 00:03:01.939 But in this case, we need to make sure 83 00:03:01.939 --> 00:03:04.780 that our, the ball, excuse me, the line 84 00:03:04.780 --> 00:03:07.240 is about off the instep. And once I'm set 85 00:03:07.240 --> 00:03:08.439 up there, I need to make sure that my 86 00:03:08.439 --> 00:03:11.659 spine is more or less perpendicular 87 00:03:13.259 --> 00:03:15.740 to the slope, which is going to make me 88 00:03:15.740 --> 00:03:18.219 feel pretty heavy on the left side. 89 00:03:18.520 --> 00:03:21.539 That's normal. If you feel kind of 50-50 90 00:03:21.539 --> 00:03:23.080 on a downhill bunker shot, you're 91 00:03:23.080 --> 00:03:25.120 probably going to enter the sand too 92 00:03:25.120 --> 00:03:28.240 soon. The club's either going to dig too 93 00:03:28.240 --> 00:03:29.280 much and the ball's not going to come out 94 00:03:29.280 --> 00:03:30.719 at all, or it's going to bounce out of 95 00:03:30.719 --> 00:03:32.960 the sand, catch the ball on the upswing, 96 00:03:32.979 --> 00:03:35.360 and just blade it a mile off the planet 97 00:03:35.360 --> 00:03:37.379 here. So what we're going to do is we're 98 00:03:37.379 --> 00:03:38.659 going to take a couple practice swings 99 00:03:38.659 --> 00:03:41.360 with our box that we've drawn here. And 100 00:03:41.360 --> 00:03:43.319 I'm going to work on getting my spine and 101 00:03:43.319 --> 00:03:44.780 getting comfortable with this feeling of 102 00:03:44.780 --> 00:03:46.759 having much more weight on my left side. 103 00:03:46.939 --> 00:03:48.259 And now I'm just going to make a couple 104 00:03:48.259 --> 00:03:50.120 practice swings, with my spine feeling 105 00:03:50.120 --> 00:03:52.460 much more leaned toward the left, toward 106 00:03:52.460 --> 00:03:52.939 the target, 107 00:03:53.780 --> 00:03:56.680 and see where my divot starts and stops. 108 00:03:56.860 --> 00:03:58.460 That was pretty good there. I'm going to 109 00:03:58.460 --> 00:04:00.979 make, make sure my spine is leaned more 110 00:04:00.979 --> 00:04:01.759 toward this way. 111 00:04:02.460 --> 00:04:04.620 Here, a nice little thump there. Another 112 00:04:04.620 --> 00:04:06.219 thing that you'll feel, another way to 113 00:04:06.219 --> 00:04:08.340 think about this, is that your shoulders 114 00:04:08.340 --> 00:04:10.400 will more or less match the slope. It's 115 00:04:10.400 --> 00:04:11.719 not going to be exact because obviously 116 00:04:11.719 --> 00:04:12.900 the right arm's a little bit lower, but 117 00:04:12.900 --> 00:04:14.639 that's a good way to think about it. So 118 00:04:14.639 --> 00:04:16.199 after you've made a few practice swings, 119 00:04:16.680 --> 00:04:19.000 work on getting your spine, again, more 120 00:04:19.000 --> 00:04:21.879 toward, leaned toward the target, and 121 00:04:21.879 --> 00:04:22.939 make a nice little swing, 122 00:04:23.779 --> 00:04:26.639 ball comes out no problem. So as you work 123 00:04:26.639 --> 00:04:28.579 on these shots, The big thing that you 124 00:04:28.579 --> 00:04:29.759 want to get comfortable with is your 125 00:04:29.759 --> 00:04:32.680 shoulders leaned, more or less matching 126 00:04:32.680 --> 00:04:35.120 the slope, your spine feeling more, lean 127 00:04:35.120 --> 00:04:36.759 toward the target, and then just make 128 00:04:36.759 --> 00:04:38.300 your normal bunker swing, and this will 129 00:04:38.300 --> 00:04:38.899 be a piece of cake.