Learning How to Hit the Explosion Shot in Golf
For beginning golfers, the bunker shot can seem like one of the most intimidating on the course. Most new golfers will do just about anything to avoid finding their ball in the sand, but experienced golfers quickly lose that fear. Why? They are able to learn, and get comfortable with, the explosion shot. Once you have the explosion shot as part of your arsenal on the course, you will learn that the bunker isn’t that bad of a place to be.
There are a few different elements to the explosion shot that you need to understand if you are going to be able to hit them successfully. Once you understand the points below, it will be up to you to get out onto the practice area and work on your technique until you are confident enough to head out on the course.
- Don’t touch the ball. It might be hard to believe, but one of the keys to hitting a good explosion shot is actually not having your club touch the ball at all. In reality, you want the club to hit the sand, and have the sand move the ball up and out of the bunker. The blast of sand that is created when you execute this shot is where the term ‘explosion’ comes from.
- Lay the wedge open at address. In order to hit a good explosion shot, you are going to want to open up the face of the wedge at address so that it is lying mostly flat and pointing up to the sky. Many amateur golfers get scared at this point and don’t open the club face enough – the result is that your club will dig into the sand too deep, and the shot may not get out of the bunker at all.
- Swing harder than you think. The sand you are going to be swinging down into is likely very dense, and it will require a good deal of effort to move the club through the sand successfully. Even if you are only a few yards off the side of the green, it might take nearly a full swing to hit the bunker shot far enough to reach the hole. There is no substitute for practice when it comes to getting the distance correct, so be sure to spend some time in the practice bunker working on controlling your explosion shots.