Bunker Drills for Consistent Contact

What it fixes

Bunker shots that either stay in the sand or fly across the green have the same root cause more often than golfers expect: an inconsistent entry point, usually paired with a swing that decelerates through impact instead of accelerating. Unlike most full-swing shots, a bunker shot never actually contacts the ball directly — the club splashes sand that carries the ball out, which means entry point control matters more here than almost anywhere else in golf. These three drills build that control before adding a real ball.

Drill 1: Line in the Sand

Draw a single line across the sand with your club or a tee. Take practice swings aimed at splashing sand out exactly at that line — no ball involved yet. The goal is simply hitting the line consistently, not hitting it far or high.

Do this for 10-15 reps before moving on. This isolates entry point control from every other variable in a bunker shot, including the pressure of a ball actually being there.

Drill 2: Two-Line Box

Draw two lines a few inches apart — roughly a hand's width — with a ball placed in the middle of the box, sitting normally in the sand. Hit 8-10 shots trying to enter the sand somewhere inside the box on every swing, not before the first line or past the second.

This is a tighter version of Drill 1, now with a ball actually present. If you're consistently entering before the box (too far behind the ball, called hitting it "fat"), or after it (barely touching sand, called "thin" or skulling it), that's the specific miss to note and carry into the next session.

Drill 3: Match Your Finish

Take normal bunker swings, but check that your follow-through is at least as long as your backswing — a shorter finish than backswing is one of the clearest signs of decelerating through impact, which is the single most common cause of a ball staying in the bunker. Hit 8-10 shots focused purely on this checkpoint, exaggerating the finish length if needed to break the habit of easing off at impact.

Common mistakes

Trying to pick the ball cleanly off the sand instead of splashing sand underneath it — a bunker shot is designed to use the sand, not avoid it, and fighting that design is what causes thin, screaming shots across the green. The other common mistake: fear of hitting the shot too far, which leads to decelerating exactly when the swing needs to speed up. A committed swing that enters at the right spot controls distance more reliably than a tentative one that doesn't.

Progression

Once you're consistently inside the box in Drill 2, narrow the box by an inch or two, which demands tighter entry-point control. Then vary the setup: try a slightly buried lie, a longer bunker shot, and a shot from firmer sand, since real bunker shots rarely match a perfect, freshly-raked lie. Finish by combining all three checkpoints — entry point, box width, and finish length — into full shots at an actual target on the green.