Pot bunkers without panic: the greenside splash, the Rules in sand and where to practise in the UK

Anyone who has stood in a revetted pot bunker on a Scottish links, staring at a wall of stacked turf taller than their shoulder, knows the feeling: the green has disappeared and the only thing visible is the sky. Yet the greenside splash is, mechanically, the most forgiving shot a club golfer plays. You are not asked to strike the ball at all. You are asked to hit sand, and sand is a big target.

The club enters an inch or two behind the ball, slides under it, and a layer of sand lifts the ball onto the green. Miss your spot by an inch and the shot still works. Compare that with a tight chip off a firm links fairway in August, where an inch is the difference between a thin shot through the back and a duff that moves two feet. Bunker play goes wrong when golfers treat it as a precision shot. Treat it as a repeatable splash and it goes right.

Why British bunkers feel harder than they are

Three things make sand here look intimidating. The first is depth. The Old Course at St Andrews has 112 bunkers, and Hell Bunker on the 14th is reported to cover about 300 square yards and to be between two and three metres deep. Most club courses are gentler, but plenty of links and heathland layouts copy the idea: small, deep, steep-faced, placed where a slightly weak approach finishes.

The second is the sand itself. Coastal sand drains well and tends to be fine; inland parkland bunkers after a wet week can be heavy and compacted, with a crust on top. The third is weather. In winter many clubs rake less often, rain packs the surface down, and a shot that splashed out beautifully in June now bounces the club off the top.

None of this changes the technique. It changes how much sand the club takes, and that is something you can read with your feet before you swing.

Set up for the splash, in this order

Order matters, because the most common fault starts before the backswing.

1. Turn the clubface open first, then take hold of it. If you grip normally and then roll your hands open, they will roll back to square on the way down. Opening the face while the club rests in your fingers, then gripping, keeps it open. What that exposes is the bounce: the rounded trailing edge of the sole that skims through sand rather than cutting into it. A sand wedge with 12 to 14 degrees of bounce is built for this job, and it only does it if the leading edge is not pointing into the ground.
2. Wriggle your feet in, then choke down. Sinking an inch lowers your whole body, so shorten the grip by about the same amount. The wriggle is also a free test of the sand: fine and fluffy, or wet and firm under a crust. The Rules allow it (more on that below).
3. Choose a spot roughly two inches behind the ball and look at that spot, not at the ball. Your job is to put the club into the sand there and keep it moving.

The fault behind most second attempts

Almost every failed splash has the same cause: the club slows down as it reaches the sand. A golfer takes it back a long way, senses the shot is only fifteen yards, and eases off at the bottom. The bounce never gets a chance to work, the leading edge digs, and the ball stays in the bunker, usually with a slightly worse lie for the next go.

The cure feels backwards. Shorten the backswing to about three-quarters and accelerate through, finishing with the hands up by your shoulders. A compact swing at full speed throws more sand than a long, hesitant one, and throwing sand is the whole point.

A drill worth ten minutes: draw a line in the sand with the grip end of your club, take no ball, and splash out along the line. Then look at what you did. The mark should start on the line and be long and shallow, roughly the size and shape of a banknote. A deep hole a few inches long means you are digging; a mark behind the line means your low point is too early.

Controlling length without changing everything

Distance from a greenside bunker comes from two dials: the amount of sand between club and ball, and the speed of the swing. With a two-inch entry and a three-quarter swing, most golfers carry the ball about 15 yards.

Move one dial at a time. For a longer shot, enter closer to the ball and keep the swing the same. For a shorter one, enter further back and keep the swing the same. Golfers who alter both together get random results and decide sand play is luck.

Once that is reliable, the loft of the club is a third option. The same swing with a 58 or 60 degree wedge sends the ball higher and shorter than a 54, which is exactly what you want below a high revetted face with the flag just over the top.

Plugged, wet and fairway lies

A ball buried in its own pitch mark needs a different approach. Square the face or close it a little, move the ball back in your stance and hit down firmly behind it. There will be no spin; the ball comes out low and rolls, so aim at the front edge and settle for two putts. Note that the free relief for an embedded ball under Rule 16.3 applies only in the general area, not in a bunker, so the lie has to be played or declared unplayable.

Wet, compacted sand behaves more like turf. Use less open face and a slightly shallower entry, because the bounce will skid off hard sand rather than sink into it.

From a fairway bunker everything reverses: the ball must be struck first. Choke down, play it a touch back of centre, keep your legs quiet and take an extra club for the shorter swing. Before any of that, look at the lip. If the club the yardage demands will not clear it, the yardage does not matter. In a pot bunker that often means a wedge played out sideways.

What the Rules let you do in sand

Rule 12.2 is shorter than most golfers think. Before your stroke you may remove loose impediments and movable obstructions, and you may dig your feet in to take a stance. You may not touch the sand with your club in the area right in front of or right behind the ball, in a practice swing, or on the backswing, and you may not deliberately test the sand with a hand, club or rake. The full text is on The R&A’s website at randa.org.

When the lie is hopeless, Rule 19.3 gives four choices. For one penalty stroke you may go back to where you last played, or take back-on-the-line or lateral relief, but those last two must be dropped inside the bunker. For two penalty strokes in total you may drop back on the line outside the bunker. Under a steep face, that two-stroke option is often cheaper than a third splash into the turf.

When you have finished, rake from the low side, enter and leave at the lowest point, and put the rake back wherever your club’s notices ask. The R&A’s Rules of Golf app is the fastest place to settle an argument on the course.

Where to practise bunker shots in Britain

The problem in Britain is rarely technique and nearly always access. Many ranges and pay-and-play venues offer mats and a putting green but no sand, so ask before you pay whether the short-game area includes a bunker and whether it is open. If your own club has a practice bunker, use it early in the day after the greenkeepers have raked it and the depth is even.

For a lesson, The PGA’s PGA Play search at pgaplay.co.uk lists around 8,000 PGA Professionals and lets you filter for short-game specialists. A single session in a real bunker with a pro does more for this shot than hours on a mat.

If your wedge keeps digging however well you swing, the club may be the issue: too little bounce, or a grind that suits firm conditions you do not play in. Some retailers offer bookable custom fittings, and some specialist stores have a simulator and a custom fitting studio. In September a large UK golf retailer was advertising the TaylorMade MG Chrome wedge at £99. Panxis Golf has no commercial relationship with any retailer and earns no commission.

A twenty-minute sand routine

• Ten splashes along a line with no ball, checking the mark each time.
• Ten balls to one flag at about 15 yards, same swing, changing only where the club enters.
• Five balls from a deliberately wet or packed patch, if the bunker has one.
• Five fairway bunker shots with a mid iron, ball first, lip cleared.
• One plugged lie, so the first one you meet in a medal is not a surprise.

Do that once a week through a season and the pot bunker stops being the hole-wrecker on your card. It becomes a shot you expect to get out of first time, with a putt to follow.

How this page was put together

The September 2026 price for the TaylorMade MG Chrome wedge was taken from American Golf (UK). Panxis has no commercial link with this retailer.