Improve Your Bunker Play with Low Point Training

Bunker play gets much easier when you stop thinking only about where the club first hits the sand and start training where the swing bottoms out. Most poor bunker shots happen because the club either bottoms out too early and digs, or bottoms out too soon and starts rising into the ball, producing a bladed shot. This drill teaches you to enter the sand slightly behind the ball while keeping the club traveling downward until the low point is in front of the ball. When you learn that pattern, you take away the two biggest bunker mistakes: the heavy chunk and the thin rocket.

How the Drill Works

The idea is simple: you create two reference lines in the sand and train the club to enter at the first line and bottom out near the second line.

In a good greenside bunker shot, you want the club to contact the sand roughly 1 to 2 inches behind the ball. But that is only part of the picture. The more important detail is that the club should still be moving downward through the sand until it reaches its lowest point slightly ahead of the ball.

This matters because of how the wedge interacts with the sand. You are not trying to smash the leading edge straight into the sand. You want the bounce of the club to do the work. Since the bounce sits behind the leading edge, the visual spacing between the ball and the club can feel tighter than many golfers expect. In other words, if you are using the bounce correctly, there may be only a small amount of space between the leading edge and the ball even though the club is still entering the sand behind it.

The drill gives you a visual way to train both pieces:

Entry point: the club first touches the sand 1 to 2 inches behind the ball.
Low point: the deepest part or middle of the divot is about 2 inches in front of the ball.

If you can consistently create that pattern, the club splashes the sand under the ball and keeps moving down long enough to avoid adding the clubhead upward into the shot too early. That is the key to reliable bunker contact.

Step-by-Step

Draw your first line behind the ball. Place a ball in the bunker and draw a line in the sand about 1 to 2 inches behind it. This is your intended entry point into the sand.
Draw a second line in front of the ball. Make another line about 2 inches in front of the ball. There should be a little more than a clubhead’s width between the two lines. This second line represents where you want the swing to bottom out.
Set up with a bunker-friendly address. Use a slightly weaker grip, keep your nose roughly over the ball, and make a narrower motion than you would for a full swing. You do not need a long, flowing action here. You need control of the bottom of the arc.
Rehearse without a ball first. Before hitting shots, make practice swings that enter the sand at the first line and continue downward so the middle of the divot lines up with the second line. This is the heart of the drill. Do not stop at the first line. Train the club to keep traveling down through the sand.
Check the divot pattern. After each rehearsal, look at the mark in the sand. The divot should begin near the back line and have its deepest point around the front line. If the deepest point is behind the ball, your low point is too far back. If you miss the back line entirely and strike too far behind it, you are digging too early.
Add the ball. Once you can create the correct divot pattern without a ball, step in and hit shots. Your goal is exactly the same: enter the sand just behind the ball and let the club continue downward until the low point is forward.
Watch the ball flight and the sand together. A solid bunker shot should come out on a soft, predictable trajectory with a clear splash of sand. Then confirm the divot. The shot result matters, but the divot tells you whether your motion is repeatable.
Repeat until the pattern becomes automatic. The purpose of the drill is not just to hit one good bunker shot. It is to build a reliable low-point location. Keep using the lines until you can produce the same strike pattern without needing the visual aid.

What You Should Feel

Good bunker technique often feels different from what struggling players expect. Many golfers think they should help the ball up or slide the club shallowly under it. In reality, the club should feel like it is moving down into the sand and continuing down long enough to place the low point ahead of the ball.

Key sensations

The club enters before the ball, but doesn’t quit there. You should feel the club keep moving through the sand rather than just slapping the surface.
Your chest stays centered. With your nose roughly over the ball, you should feel stable rather than drifting away from the target or hanging back.
The motion is narrow and controlled. This is not a long, loose sweep. The arms and club stay more connected to your body so you can control the bottom of the swing.
The bounce glides through the sand. The club should not feel like it is stabbing straight down with the leading edge. It should feel as though the sole is interacting with the sand and carrying through.
The low point is ahead. The biggest checkpoint is that the deepest part of the divot is in front of the ball, not behind it.

What a good strike looks like

When you do this correctly, the sand starts just behind the ball, the club continues down through impact, and the ball rides out on the splash. You may not always produce maximum spin, especially if the entry point is only barely behind the ball, but you will produce much more reliable contact. Reliability is the first goal in bunker play.

Common Mistakes to Avoid

Only focusing on the entry point. Many golfers obsess over hitting the sand 1 to 2 inches behind the ball but ignore where the swing bottoms out. You need both.
Getting too shallow. In many parts of the swing, shallowing can be helpful. In greenside bunker shots, too much shallowing is usually a problem because the club starts rising too soon.
Hanging back on your trail foot. If you stay stuck on your back foot, the low point tends to move behind the ball and the club can bottom out too early or start coming up into impact.
Swaying off the ball. Too much lateral movement away from the target makes it very hard to keep the low point forward.
Letting the club get too far away from you. When the arms and club drift excessively outward, the club often approaches too shallowly and works upward into the ball.
Trying to lift the ball. The sand lifts the ball. Your job is to control the strike and the low point.
Digging with the leading edge. If the handle gets too far forward or the face and sole are not interacting properly, the leading edge can dig. You want the bounce involved.
Making the swing too long. A long motion often makes low-point control harder. A narrower, more compact action is usually easier to repeat.

How This Fits Your Swing

This drill is about more than bunker play. It teaches you a core impact skill: controlling the bottom of the arc. In every area of golf, solid contact depends on where the club reaches its lowest point relative to the ball. The bunker simply exaggerates that truth because the sand gives you instant feedback.

For bunker shots specifically, the ideal pattern is unique. You want the club to enter the sand before the ball, but you still want the low point ahead. That combination allows the club to use the bounce, move through the sand, and carry the ball out on a cushion of sand instead of striking it cleanly.

If you struggle in bunkers, there is a good chance your issue is not just technique in a broad sense. It is likely a low-point problem. You may be contacting the sand in roughly the right place, but if the club is already beginning to rise by the time it reaches the ball, the shot will be inconsistent. That is why some bunker shots feel perfect in rehearsal but fall apart with a ball present. The club entered the sand where you wanted, but the bottom of the swing was still in the wrong place.

This drill also reinforces a useful contrast with the full swing. In full shots, golfers often work to shallow the club and create a sweeping delivery. In the bunker, that same instinct can hurt you. You still want the motion to be reasonably flat around your body, but the angle of attack into the sand needs to be steeper and more controlled. The club should not be skimming too level through the bunker if you want dependable results.

As you improve, you will start to trust that you do not need a perfect-looking explosion every time. What you need is a predictable strike pattern:

Enter the sand slightly behind the ball
Use the bounce of the wedge
Keep the club traveling down until the low point is ahead
Let the sand launch the ball out

That is the bigger picture. Great bunker players are not guessing. They are controlling where the club enters the sand and where it bottoms out. Train both with this drill, and your bunker play becomes far more reliable under pressure.