How to Actually Enjoy the Sand

Summer is Beach Weather
As it heats up this season, it's only appropriate that a lot of my most satisfying recent lessons have happened in the sand. I've been working with quite a few newer players in Texas and California, and I get a big kick out of helping someone make a connection that has them consistently getting the ball up and out of the sand when they've never done that before. The first step? Understanding that your brain is probably trying to trick you! When you look at a bunker face or lip, the tendency is to want to fall back and swing up to lift the ball. That makes the swing bottom out too early. But when you really analyze the barrier in front of you, it's rarely ever more than 18 or 20 degrees. There's plenty of loft on the club if you just let it do its job! We'll work on landing the club closer to the ball, and making a giant, slow-motion swing where it's the hands and handle that are moving slower while the head is moving fast enough to do the work. When you land it in the right place, you have to displace much less sand, and the amount of effort that takes transmits back into what you feel like you're trying to do. It's an awesome feedback loop. Check out this demonstration I put up on Instagram this week.