Click here and enter your email address to watch the full video
Tyler Ferrell is the only person in the world named to Golf Digest's list of Best Young Teachers in America AND its list of Best Golf Fitness Professionals in America. Meet your new instructor.

Subscribe now to watch the full video.

Distance Control - Bunker

Use one or more of the following strategies to help you control your distances better out of the bunker

  • Establish a consistent tempo and "bunker stock swing" (about shoulder height)
  • Open the face to take away distance and add height
  • Switch to a club with less loft for longer shots or more loft for shorter shots
  • Add more squat to hit it higher and less squat to hit it farther
  • Learn how to add more speed from just the arms. If you add too much from the body, your contact will usually suffer.

Playlists: Master Your Distance Wedge

Tags: Cast, Bunker, Transition, Drill, Intermediate

00:00:00,000 --> 00:00:05,000
This video is learning how to control distance out of the bunker.

00:00:05,000 --> 00:00:10,000
So similar to how we were controlling distance with the other wedge swings, the finesse

00:00:10,000 --> 00:00:12,000
swing, the distance wedge is.

00:00:12,000 --> 00:00:14,000
tempo is going to play a big role.

00:00:14,000 --> 00:00:18,000
So if you're getting up here in one time, it's nice and smooth and the next time it's

00:00:18,000 --> 00:00:20,000
really fast and aggressive.

00:00:20,000 --> 00:00:26,000
It's going to be hard to control how far the ball is going, but you're welcome to try

00:00:26,000 --> 00:00:27,000
that method.

00:00:27,000 --> 00:00:28,000
It does work.

00:00:28,000 --> 00:00:33,000
I recommend you find kind of your stock bunker swing and then build off of that.

00:00:33,000 --> 00:00:38,000
So for most of you, it'll be kind of like a distance wedge swing where it's going 9 o'clock,

00:00:38,000 --> 00:00:43,000
but with the different setup position, the downswing will be more of this letting gravity

00:00:43,000 --> 00:00:46,000
or letting your arm drop.

00:00:46,000 --> 00:00:51,000
So then once you have your standard swing, let's say that my standard swing goes about

00:00:51,000 --> 00:00:56,000
15 yards, which is ideal because that's about how far you're going to have for a lot

00:00:56,000 --> 00:00:58,000
of bunkers shots if you're in green side bunkers.

00:00:58,000 --> 00:01:04,000
Well then, there are things I can do, like opening up the club face, will take away some

00:01:04,000 --> 00:01:07,000
distance, squaring the club face more can add a little.

00:01:07,000 --> 00:01:13,000
So maybe that gives me a three yard buffer on either side.

00:01:13,000 --> 00:01:15,000
I can switch clubs.

00:01:15,000 --> 00:01:19,000
So let's say I normally play my 58 and that goes the 15.

00:01:19,000 --> 00:01:22,000
I could take even, this is my 9 iron.

00:01:23,000 --> 00:01:25,000
Right, there's no rule that you can't use the normal iron.

00:01:25,000 --> 00:01:28,000
I mean, SEVY was pretty good at it.

00:01:28,000 --> 00:01:33,000
But you can take your normal, you know, 9 iron and do your normal swing.

00:01:33,000 --> 00:01:39,000
And so if my normal 58 went certain height, this one probably went 25 yards.

00:01:39,000 --> 00:01:45,000
So now I just added a whole another shot to my bag that makes it a little bit easier to hit

00:01:45,000 --> 00:01:51,000
the pin 25 yards away unless I have to carry it the whole way there.

00:01:51,000 --> 00:01:55,000
There will be times where you have to adjust off your normal swing and just add more speed.

00:01:55,000 --> 00:01:57,000
It just gets a little bit riskier.

00:01:57,000 --> 00:02:03,000
So playing with loft, playing with different clubs.

00:02:03,000 --> 00:02:09,000
And then the last one is playing with your squat stance.

00:02:09,000 --> 00:02:15,000
So if I really want to hit this thing high and short, what you'll tend to see is we'll

00:02:15,000 --> 00:02:19,000
get down even further so that the club is going to work very much under the ball.

00:02:19,000 --> 00:02:23,000
Now I'm going to have some good amount of loft with this.

00:02:23,000 --> 00:02:30,000
Get down pretty far and we'll see how many it tastes for it to be kind of a good looking swing.

00:02:30,000 --> 00:02:31,000
So it took one.

00:02:31,000 --> 00:02:35,000
You saw how aggressive and how much speed and compared to my normal bunkers swing, that

00:02:35,000 --> 00:02:39,000
only went about 6, 7 yards.

00:02:39,000 --> 00:02:42,000
So went about half the distance, how the ton of speed and was a spin and was going to stop

00:02:42,000 --> 00:02:43,000
very, very quickly.

00:02:43,000 --> 00:02:48,000
So getting down in the squat stance, getting that handle low, can help create height

00:02:48,000 --> 00:02:49,000
and take away distance.

00:02:49,000 --> 00:02:53,000
This is a little riskier in the bunkers but standing up a little taller, a little bit

00:02:53,000 --> 00:02:56,000
more bend, can add a little bit.

00:02:56,000 --> 00:02:59,000
But those are just some easy ways that you can play around with distance control.

00:02:59,000 --> 00:03:04,000
Either way, you want to try to establish a consistent tempo just like we're using in

00:03:04,000 --> 00:03:06,000
your finesse swing and your distance wedge.

00:03:06,000 --> 00:03:09,000
So try that to work on your distance control.

00:03:09,000 --> 00:03:13,000
You can play ladder drills, all those kind of fun games that we have in the Layer 3 practice

00:03:13,000 --> 00:03:14,000
section.

00:03:14,000 --> 00:03:18,000
They'll help you dial in and figure out how to become really deadly out of the bunker.

Subscribe now for full access to our video library.