If you’ve ever been in the military, you know that a bunker is an underground fort – a place to seek shelter from the battle around you. Well, in golf – as in war – a bunker is not a place you want to be. A bunker, also known as a sand trap or a hazard, is a strategically placed area on the golf course that the architects have nicely filled with sand. As you can well imagine, a little white ball in a mound of sand is not something that is easy to remove! Bunkers are most often found on and alongside the fairway or the area through which you are trying to play to the hole.

There are many theories about the best ways to hit your ball out of the bunker, and if you take lessons or learn from other experienced players, they’ll all give you different advice. Here’s our advice: Choke down on your club and take your normal stance (although you may want to open it up a bit), with the majority of your weight on your front foot. Keep your body still. Take a steep backswing so the butt of your club is pointed right at the ball. Hit about 2 inches behind the ball because if you try and hit the ball directly, you’ll just drive it further into the sand. Swing ‘through’ the sand and don’t stop once you’ve hit it. Keep your angle steep, and you should be able to get your ball out! Good luck to you!