Sophie Walker: How to get out of fairway bunkers

Sophie Walker is a professional golfer who plays on the Ladies European Tour.

We took the Shack on tour to Forest Pines to get some tips from Sophie. Here she shows us how to be confident out of fairway bunkers.

Get clean contact out of the bunkers every time

One of the main things to remember when tackling this shot is to keep your height. If you don’t it will result in you catching the sand before the ball, or skulling it into the lip of the bunker.

Sophie explains that it is important to have a solid stance in the bunker. This doesn’t mean digging your feet in to much like you would if you were playing from a green side bunker.

You only want to be slightly in the sand to help you keep your balance and make sure your feet don’t give way through the shot.

The biggest factor in this shot though is contacting the ball first. Very much like an iron shot, if you hit it correctly you will still end up taking a divot from the sand after contact.

In order to make the fairway bunker shot work make sure you follow the below key points…

A bit about myself…

I turned professional in October 2006 and gained my Ladies European Tour card in the November. It was a very proud moment for me as before it was mostly about the team, now it was all about me.

So here I am living out my dream of playing sport for a living. Most people say they dreamt of playing golf from a young age. I just dreamt of being a professional athlete.

Tour life has its ups and down but I can honestly say that the places I have been and the people I have met have been amazing. Every week we are at a different venue, but it’s the same people so we are like a circus/family.

I am now taking part in my 10th season on tour. I’m settled and happy with the way things are going – it’s up to me to let my golf do the talking and see how far I can go.