Playing from fairway bunkers
A Practical Guide to Playing From Fairway Bunkers
A practical guide to fairway-bunker play: read the situation, choose the percentage shot, and keep the next play simple.
Read before you reach for a club
Good fairway-bunker play starts with lip height, sand depth, and ball-first contact. For fairway-bunker recovery, that quick check tells you whether the shot is an attack, a placement, or a tidy escape. The expensive mistake in clean-contact recovery is treating a marginal ball as if it deserves your favorite full swing.
A four-question ladder
- What miss hurts most in this fairway-bunker play situation?
- For fairway-bunker recovery, which shot can you hit seven times out of ten?
- For fairway-bunker recovery, does the score, lie, or opponent justify extra risk?
- For fairway-bunker recovery, where should the next shot be played from?
On-course note: In fairway-bunker play, a plan you can say in one breath is usually the plan you can swing with.