How to Get your Golf Ball out of a Bunker

Golf would be relatively easy if we never went in a hazard.  However, the hazards (basically water and sand bunkers) are put there to challenge us, and like it or not, sooner or later we all end up in a greenside bunker...but how often do you practice the right technique to get out of the sand?

Most important action to take 

First and most important is to get out of the bunker! 

This may sound obvious, but leaving the ball in the bunker is a wasted shot!

Biggest Mistake

One of the biggest mistakes most amateurs make when playing bunker shots is to decelerate into the ball when taking a shot.  The club sinks into the sand and they are lucky if the ball gets out at all. Not the ideal situation.

But it should not be this hard! 

Get the Sand out

What you have to understand with a bunker shot is that you are not really trying to hit the ball.  You should be sliding your sand wedge under the ball and hitting a "plate" of sand to the hole with the ball sitting on top of it. When you take this into account you realise that you have to strike through the sand much harder than you would if you were only hitting the ball a comparable distance off the grass.  The "plate" of sand you are hitting is much heavier than the ball!