Advanced Golf Lesson: The Plugged Bunker Lie

Hitting From a Plugged Bunker Lie

by David Lee

One of the many strange things about the brain is how it perceives things - and “plugged-lie” bunker shots are one of those issues that most people see backwards from the way they should. A ball buried in the sand can be hit from the bunker with no more effort than when the ball is sitting on a clean lie. Normal perception and instinct tells us that we need to “dig” the ball out of a buried lie. In reality, if the player tightens the arms in an effort to “force” the ball from a plugged lie, the tension increase in the arms diminishes the core rotation, reducing the foot-pounds that move through impact, and lessens the likelihood of getting the shot out of the bunker. Just as with a normal sand shot, proper technique requires that the arms start down in a state of pure dead-fall, and the turn of the body “excavates” both the sand and the ball from the bunker. In a typical trap shot, with the ball sitting on top of the sand, the club undercuts the ball to a greater degree, imparting more spin - and it stops quickly upon hitting the green. When the ball is buried, however, the undercutting effect is diminished, and the sand behind the ball pushes it out of the bunker with less spin. Since the carry-to-roll ratio is reduced, hitting from a buried lie actually takes less of a swing to cover an equivalent amount of ground.

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