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How to easily and effectively play a greenside plugged lie bunker shot 

This shot is really simple to execute as long as you follow some early principals in the set up and swing movement.

In a normal greenside bunker shot we are using the bounce of the club (the back edge if you will) to play these particular shots from a normal sand lie. In a plugged lie situation we need to use the leading edge of the club a lot more to cut down deeper into the sand, creating a deeper divot. Using the bounce of the wedge will create a nice shallow divot.

So knowing we need to produce a deeper divot by using the leading edge of the wedge, we are going to use the most lofted wedge say 60 degree that has 8 degree of bounce. The trick here is to close the face slightly so that the leading edge becomes lower than the back edge. This now ensures that the leading edge digs into the sand first, not the bounce.
Hold the club in front of you with the leading edge facing up towards 12oclock and turn the face to 11.30oclock and then form your grip.

The stance is going to be slightly wider than normal for a regular bunker shot and you are going to keep the ball in the centre of the stance. The weight is still going to favour the left side (target side) as normal of at least 65%.

The trick in the swing is to get the wrists setting as quickly as possible in the backswing as we want to use this steep energy in the downward blow into the sand which is going to pop the ball up and out onto the green. We want to hit 1 – 2 inches behind the ball and allow for some run on the ball once it lands onto the green.

The swing is going to be very short in the follow through as a lot of the energy has be forced down into the sand to pop the ball up and out.

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Mark Wood

PGA Advanced Professional
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