There are shots that change a round. And then there is the bunker. For many amateur golfers, falling in the sand still feels like a little bit of a condemnation: doubts about placement, fear of leaving the ball in, tension in the hands and that feeling that any mistake is double the price.
However, the reality is rather less dramatic. Properly understood, the bunker shot is not an impossible punishment, but a concrete technique that can be learned, repeated and mastered. In fact, the teaching manuals agree on one essential idea: in a greenside bunker, the aim is not to hit the ball directly, but to make the club enter the sand a few centimetres behind so that it is that small “explosion” that takes the ball out high and softly.
Mastering this facet of the short game not only saves you strokes. It also gives you something even more valuable: peace of mind. Because when you stop seeing the sand as a threat, you start to play with a new ease.
Why the bunker is one of golf's most feared shots
The bad reputation of the bunker is not only due to technique. It comes, above all, from the head. Many amateur players enter the arena thinking about the mistake rather than the solution. And this is immediately noticeable: hesitant swing, deceleration, excessive tension and a very common tendency to try to “help” the ball to get up.
This is where one of the great misunderstandings arises. The bunker is not played by digging or hitting the sand violently. Neither is it played by trying to hit the ball clean as if we were playing from the fairway. Mistakes tend to come from precisely these two extremes: either you go in too far back and the club gets stuck, or you try to contact the ball too cleanly and the ball comes out low, long or not even out at all. Bunker manuals insist on the same thing: the club should slide, not bury, and the bounce of the sand wedge is designed just for that.
The difference between an amateur and a good player is often not that one never fails, but that the latter has a better understanding of what needs to happen in the arena and is confident of repeating it.
Basic technique for exiting the bunker correctly
The basis of a good bunker hit starts before you swing the club. It starts with placement. If you're right-handed, you'll want to open your stance slightly and leave your body a little wide of the target. This stance allows the club to move freely and the wedge face to work as it should. The ball, in a standard green bunker tee, should be forward, between the inside of the left foot and the centre of the stance.
Then comes a decisive detail: open the clubface before taking the grip. This order matters. By opening the face, you add loft and allow the sole of the club, especially the bounce, to glide better through the sand. It's just that geometry that helps the ball go high instead of getting stuck.
Your knees should be bent, with a sensation similar to sitting down slightly. It is also a good idea to bury your feet a few centimetres deep to gain stability and, incidentally, to feel the texture of the sand better. This small gesture gives you very useful information: you don't play on dry, loose sand in the same way as on wet or compact sand.
From there, the mental key changes the stroke completely: don't think about the ball, think about a point 4 or 5 centimetres behind it. That is your real target. The movement must be decisive, with sufficient speed and without slowing the club down at impact. The aim is not to hit the sand, but to make a small controlled explosion. A handful of sand, not half a beach.
And something important that many people forget: in the bunker you can't put the club on the sand before the shot. As well as being a bad technical habit, it is also forbidden by the rules.
The 4 most common mistakes when playing from the bunker
- The first is to try to hit the ball directly. It seems logical, but in a greenside bunker this is often a mistake. When you do that, you eliminate the help of the sand and the bounce, and the result is rarely good.
- The second mistake is to carry the ball too far back in the stance. This causes the club to come in at too vertical an angle, digging in and greatly reducing the chances of getting the ball high. When the ball is too far back, the player finds it difficult to lift the ball and the club sinks instead of sliding.
- Another common mistake is to slow down. Many players make a decent swing all the way down the fairway, but when they reach impact, they slow down for fear of “going too far”. And then the worst thing happens: no explosion, no exit and no confidence for the next shot.
- It is also common to open the clubface too little or, conversely, to open it too much in wet or too hard sand. Here it pays to be practical. In firm or wet sand, an excessively open face can cause the club to bounce too much. In these conditions, a slightly squarer face and a more direct entry usually works better.
Exercises to improve your bunker shot
One of the most useful exercises is the line in the sand. Draw a straight line and position yourself so that the line is where the ball would be, or just behind it. The aim is not to hit balls at first, but to learn to erase the line always at the same point. This exercise improves something decisive: the consistency of the impact.
Another very effective one is to practice without obsessing over the hole. Place a towel on the green as a landing area and try to bounce the ball there. This way you begin to understand an important truth about the bunker: it is not only important to get out, it is also important to control where the ball lands.
And there's a third exercise that works particularly well because it's similar to the course: drop three balls into the bunker, play them as they rest, and finish each one with a putt. It forces you to get out of the automatic mode of repetition and think of each situation as a real recovery.
Mastering the bunker: a skill that makes a difference
In golf, the short game separates more than it seems. And within the short game, the bunker carries enormous weight, not because it appears on every hole, but because it conditions your confidence. Not because it appears on every hole, but because it conditions your confidence. Do you become conservative when attacking a flag for fear of sand? Do you play more tense when there is a short bunker? Then you're not just losing shots in the sand - you're losing them earlier.
When you improve from the bunker, you also improve your strategy and your composure. You start to accept that sand is part of the course. It even stops feeling like the worst possible place in some situations. That mental change is almost as important as technique.
Practising the bunker at Golf Club Son Servera
Learning to get out of the bunker well depends not only on repeating, but on doing so in an environment that invites you to train with intention. And there Golf Club Son Servera has a lot to say. The club, founded in 1967, is the second oldest golf course in Mallorca and maintains that social, welcoming and familiar character that makes many players talk about feeling at home.
Its location on the Costa de los Pinos, amidst pine forests, mountains and open views of the Mediterranean, makes each session more than just practice. The course is also dotted with lakes and bunkers and is of interest to both experienced players and those who want to continue to grow their game.
Added to this is a golf school that is highly valued in the Balearic Islands, with professionals in continuous training and a clear vocation for teaching. It is an ideal context in which to work on precisely those shots that command the most respect from amateurs: those that require technique, sensitivity and confidence.
Test yourself at Golf Club Son Servera
Getting out of the bunker correctly is not a matter of magic. It's about placement, understanding the shot, using the club intelligently and, above all, practising judiciously. When you understand that you don't have to “hit the ball”, but make the sand work for you, everything starts to fall into place. And when that idea becomes routine, the bunker is no longer intimidating.
Because yes, sand can take strokes out of you. But it can also give you a great sense of control when you learn to play it well.
If you want to continue fine-tuning your short game in a unique setting, surrounded by Mallorcan nature, sea views and a course designed to really enjoy golf, book your next trip in Golf Club Son Servera could be a very good next step.
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