Buried Lies in the Bunker

Don’t you just hate it when you hit your ball into a greenside bunker, and to add insult to injury, you find it in a buried lie. It’s hard enough to get it up and down from a perfect lie, let alone when it’s buried or partially buried. Certain types of light, powdery sand tend to produce buried lies more often than firmer sand, so they don’t happen all of the time. But you should know what to do when and if you find yourself staring at only part of your Titleist.

When playing from a buried lie, you should use a fairly square stance, approximately shoulder width, with the ball positioned near the center of your stance. You should address the ball with a square-to-slightly-closed clubface and your grip may be a little firmer than normal. Your backswing and downswing should be more steep than normal and you want to make contact as close behind the ball as you can. Since the club is coming down at a steeper angle of approach, the club will tend to dig deeper and the follow through will be abbreviated.

Because we have the club in a slightly closed position, the toe will tend to make contact with the sand first and maneuver itself under the ball to get it out easier. You have to make sure that you do not release your hands the same way you do on a regular shot or the ball will tend to go left. If executed correctly, the ball will come out fairly high and straight with very little spin. On some occasions, it will come out like a knuckleball. Because of this, the ball will tend to roll more than normal upon landing so take that into account. Once you practice this technique, I think you’ll find that buried lies aren’t as bad as you once thought they were.

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