Lady Golfer Instruction: Jade Schaeffer

Ladies’ European Tour star Jade Schaeffer explains how to do more than just splash out from traps with a lower lip

I THINK a lot of amateurs know how to get the ball out of greenside bunkers; hit down and through the sand an inch behind the ball.

It should be quite easy!

But knowing what to do out of a fairway bunker isn’t as obvious to many. Is it like a normal iron shot where you hit down on the ball and squeeze it against the grass?
Or is like the deep bunker shot which I mention above? If you don’t know the asnwer to that question, you will never hit consistently good fairway bunker shots.

Yet, if you’ve got a good lie in a bunker with a low lip, there really isn’t anything to worry about.

In terms of preparation, I’d urge you to move your hands an inch or even two down the grip, move the ball back at least one ball’s width and open your stance slightly.

To complete your address position, shuffle your left foot into the sand but keep the right ‘on top’ – I want you to swing ‘around’ this right knee, almost like it is a pivot.
Keep your weight on your left side throughout, don’t swing past three- quarters and – here’s the crucial bit – at impact hit the ball and then the sand, taking an imaginary divot as you would from the fairway.
ABOUT JADE

Jade Schaeffer has played on LET since 2007 and has claimed two victories. She was photographed here while competing in the Standard Bank Mauritius Open at Le Touessrok in December 2012.