Gary Player’s technique for easily escaping fairway bunkers

Golf instruction is ever-evolving, but the best advice stands the test of time. In GOLF.com’s new series, Timeless Tips, we’re highlighting some of the greatest advice teachers and players have dispensed in the pages of GOLF Magazine. Today we have a fairway bunker tip from Gary Player from our June 1971 issue.

Fairway bunkers are scary hazards. With deep valleys and high lips, reaching the green feels all but impossible. Heck, sometimes just getting out feels like a win.

When you’re in the fairway bunker, you’ve got to be extremely precise. If your contact is anything but near perfection, the ball will not react the way you need it to. It’s a shot that most recreational players have little idea how to hit. They simply swing and hope.

It doesn’t have to be this way, though. With a few technique adjustments, you can hit fairway bunker shots that will make your playing partners swoon.

In the text below, we’ve pulled an article from the June 1971 issue of GOLF Magazine in which Gary Player shares his best advice for hitting from a fairway bunker. Follow it and your struggles from the sand traps off the fairway will be a thing of the past.

Gary Player’s fairway bunker advice

I’ve seen people enter the fairway bunker as though they were stepping into a snake pit, swing so fast the club looks like a propeller at full rev, then, once they do get the ball out, run after it as if they were escaping a forest fire. There need not be such apprehension.

The key to the shot is the word “fairway.” When you’re faced with a middle or long iron from a bunker, the shot should be played almost exactly as it would be from clipped grass. The ball must be struck first, the divot taken afterward. Repeat: The ball must be struck first!

In aid of this, I do make one compensation in my mental approach to the shot that might be helpful. I look at the front of the ball instead of the back, figuring that if I do make a mistake it’s better to hit it thin rather than catch sand before contacting the ball.

Now let’s get down to the specifics of the stroke.

Address

As with any shot, setting up is very important. However, a little extra care is called for here because the footing is different than you normally have on grass. Since you are dealing with loose material, you must dig in solidly to avoid body sway. This can be done by rotating the feet once you have determined their placement. I like to favor the inside of the right foot in fixing the entire right side firmly. Since you are going to take the full swing you would from the fairway, the ball should be played slightly left of center, with the hands forward of the clubhead. The weight should be primarily on the left side. You need not, however, overdo any of these. The phrase to keep in mind is, “Be Natural.”

Takeaway

The backswing should be in the conventional plane, but you should avoid any excessive weight transfer to the right side. Be sure to extend the club fully on the way back. The turn should be primarily with the hips, but don’t let too much body turn pull your feet from their implanted position. On top the club is in the proper horizontal position.

You don’t have to overswing on this shot for if you make proper contact with the ball it will go just as far as it would from off the fairway grass. To insure that I have completed the backswing, and to prevent rushing the shot out of fear, I feel my hands fully cocked at the top of the swing.

Downswing

The move back to the ball is the same pulling action that you employ for all shots, with the hands remaining cocked and the clubhead lagging behind. There has been a definite move to the left side, developed by pushing the right knee significantly toward the left.

The ball gets struck first, and then the sand “divot” is taken. Notice that the head is fixed over the spot where the ball had rested, and that my weight is very much to the left side. However, there has been no body sway because my left foot is still firmly implanted in the sand. Because the ball has been played from a conventional position in relation to the feet, the club is able to move easily through to the target. Only after the ball is well on its way to the green does the right hand begin to turn over. My head will come up to follow the flight of the ball only after the follow through is nearly completed.

How to practice

Just before the British Open in 1959, I had serious doubts as to my ability to even compete. It seemed that I hit every other shot “heavy” in the practice rounds, and couldn’t seem to get anywhere from the treacherous fairway bunkers at Muirfield, in Scotland. I spent one evening hitting practice shots off the sand on a nearby beach and quickly taught myself to catch the ball first, not just out of the sand, but in the fairway as well.

What I did was draw a line in the sand, place the back of the ball on the line, and then hit the shot. If contact was made correctly, the line would still be there after the ball was sailing on down the beach. This little tip enabled me to regain my confidence, and I went on to not only complete, but win the event.

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