To get out of a bunker you do not hit the ball: you hit the sand underneath it, a couple of inches behind, with the clubface open and without slowing the swing down. It is the only shot in golf where the club never touches the ball, and that is exactly why so many players fail it, because they do what instinct asks and go looking for the ball. The sand is what lifts it out. Your job is to move that sand with conviction.
The essentials in 20 seconds
- Hit the sand, not the ball. Your entry point sits two to five centimetres behind it, and the club passes underneath without ever touching it.
- Open the clubface before you grip, never after. A sand wedge with an open face bounces off the sand instead of digging into it.
- Accelerate all the way through. The most common error is decelerating on the way into the sand, and a ball that stays in the bunker nearly always comes from that.
- You may remove stones and leaves from the bunker without penalty, but you cannot ground your club or test the sand before the shot.
Why bunkers frighten players more than they should
The bunker has a bad reputation because it punishes hesitation. Go in afraid and you decelerate; decelerate and the club digs into the sand and the ball stays put; and because it stayed put, next time you go in even more afraid. You break that loop by understanding the shot, not by hitting harder.
Sand in good condition helps enormously, and that is a detail La Roca Golf took seriously: the course bunkers were rebuilt with a documented drainage rate of 90 litres per square metre, so they clear water quickly and are playable again soon after rain. Practising on firm, clean sand rather than in a puddle or on a compacted crust changes the feel of the shot entirely.
There is also a way of looking at the bunker that matches how this course was designed: an obstacle you can beat, not a sentence. Every shot is an opportunity, not a verdict, and from the sand that is literally true, because with the right technique getting out onto the green is one of the most repeatable shots in the game.
The technique, step by step
1. Open the face before you take your grip
Set the club down with the face pointing slightly skyward and then close your hands on the grip. If you open the face with your hands already set, it will simply rotate closed again as you address the ball. That angle is what makes the sole of the sand wedge bounce off the sand rather than bury itself.
2. Work your feet in and lower your body
Twist your feet gently until they settle into the sand. You gain stability and, in the process, drop a couple of centimetres, which helps the club pass under the ball. If you sink in a long way, grip down the shaft slightly to compensate.
3. Ball forward, weight on the lead side
The ball sits ahead of centre in your stance, roughly off your left heel if you are right-handed, and your weight stays towards the front leg. That combination lets the club reach the sand at the right point without your hands having to help it.
4. Aim at a spot in the sand, not at the ball
Pick a mark two to five centimetres behind the ball and hit that. The softer the sand, the further behind you can enter; on firm sand, closer in. The ball rides out on a cushion of sand, which is why it flies far shorter than a normal shot with the same club.
5. Finish the swing
This is the step that separates the shot that comes out from the one that does not. The club has to keep going to a full finish, hands ending high. A well-struck bunker shot makes a dull thud of sand, not the click of a ball.
The four mistakes that leave the ball in
- Decelerating. Fear of hitting it too far stalls the swing right before impact. Almost every ball left in the sand comes from this.
- Trying to lift the ball. The loft of the club already does that. Lean back to help it up and the club either enters too early or catches the ball halfway.
- A closed face. Without that open angle the leading edge digs in and the whole motion dies in the sand.
- Entering too far behind. Eight or ten centimetres of sand ahead of the club kills the shot. Better to err close than long.
If the ball has half buried itself, the lie players call a fried egg, the recipe changes: a slightly squarer face, a steeper strike, and no attempt at a high finish. It comes out running and with less control, but it comes out.
What the rules allow inside a bunker
Worth knowing, because more shots are lost to ignorance here than to bad technique. Under The R&A rules:
- You may remove loose impediments (stones, leaves, twigs) and movable obstructions inside the bunker. This changed in 2019 and plenty of players still do not know it.
- You may not test the sand deliberately, ground the club right in front of or behind the ball, or touch the sand on your backswing. Those do carry a penalty.
- You may rake the sand to care for the course, even before your own shot, as long as you do not improve the conditions for your stroke.
- If the ball is unplayable, you have the option of getting out of the bunker by dropping on a line back outside it for two penalty strokes, alongside the one-stroke options inside the bunker.
And the part that is not a rule but counts all the same: rake on your way out and leave the rake where you found it. It is part of golf etiquette, and the group behind you will notice.
Where to practise it
The bunker shot is one of the few you can learn in twenty minutes and lose in a month without practice. The training centre at La Roca Golf has a bunker on each of the two driving range platforms, plus a short game area of more than 10,000 square metres with natural greens for the shots around them. That is where to repeat it, without a scorecard on your mind: one session of thirty balls from the sand is worth more than ten scattered attempts across a year.
If you would rather have someone watch the movement, La Roca Golf Academy covers this shot in individual lessons. What usually needs fixing is not power but the entry point and the finish, and both are easier to spot from outside. And since the bunker is only one part of the game around the green, our guides to the short game and to common mistakes are worth a look too, where this shot appears for obvious reasons.
Frequently asked questions about the bunker shot
Which club do you use to get out of a bunker?
The sand wedge, designed for exactly this: its wide sole bounces off the sand instead of digging. For bunkers tight to the green with little room, a lob wedge gives more height. If you are travelling light, the basic equipment for a beginner already includes a sand wedge for this reason.
How far behind the ball should you hit?
Two to five centimetres. On soft sand you can enter a little further back; on firm or wet sand, closer to the ball, because the club penetrates less.
Can you touch the sand with the club before playing?
Not to test its condition, not by grounding the club beside the ball, and not during the backswing: all of those carry a penalty. An accidental brush as you take your stance has not carried one since the 2019 rules change.
What if the ball is up against the lip?
Consider coming out sideways, or even backwards. Getting it back to the fairway in a decent position costs one shot; attempting the heroic and leaving it in costs two or three. You can also declare it unplayable and drop outside the bunker for two penalty strokes.
Why does the ball travel so much shorter from sand?
Because the club never strikes the ball: a cushion of sand pushes it out. The same sand wedge that flies fifty metres from the fairway will do considerably less from the bunker, so allow for that and do not shorten your swing.
Start your golf journey at La Roca Golf
The bunker stops being frightening the day you accept you are not going to hit the ball. From there it is a matter of repeating it until the movement runs by itself, and there is no shortcut for that: it takes sand, a sand wedge and time. At La Roca Golf, 30 minutes from Barcelona, you have the short game area to practise in and the Academy to have someone correct your entry point from day one.
Check our services and rates and book your next session.
