Just keep spinning
Picture the scene: It’s pouring with rain, you’re out on the course, wedge in hand, staring at the pin. Hopefully, you’re dressed for the occasion; wrapped up in your waterproofs and warm layers. But your poor old wedge won’t be.
Equipment
Bring on the bunkers
Golf is simply one of the best sports in the world, and we're lucky enough to have another major tournament to watch this week.
We loved watching the pros take on Valhalla Golf Club at the PGA Championship. As with any huge championship course, the Valhalla GC has its fair share of hazards. Now, you may well be the kind of golfer to groan when you walk on to the next tee and see the fairway littered with bunkers.
Valhalla GC has 60 bunkers,
with a greenside bunker on 17/18 holes
The Valhalla course has a greenside bunker on every hole besides the 12th, so those that played well in the tournament did well to keep on their toes to overcome the obstacles. Bunkers are famously difficult to play, so today we want to give you some advice on how best to tackle them, as well as give you a solid recommendation in the form of the latest golf wedge offerings from Wilson.
Fairway bunkers
It can feel rather daunting sizing up the fairway when we’re on the tee, feeling those fairway bunkers shooting daggers right back at us. It can also feel especially cruel when we make excellent contact with the ball only for it to take a bad bounce on the fairway and trickle into the sand trap.
That being said, you’ve got to give the course designer credit for strategically placing these bunkers to make the game more challenging and exciting.
To get yourself happily out of a fairway bunker, you need to make solid impact with the ball to punch it through the sand. It can be notoriously difficult to hit out of a bunker as the feel is so different to hitting any other terrain you’d find on the golf course.
How do your bunker shots usually go? Are you good at escaping them or do you find that it takes you a few goes to get out of a dreaded bunker? If you’re struggling with bunker shots and find fairway bunkers to be downright demoralizing, we’d love to change that.
Why not visit us in the pro shop to get some bunker lessons booked? It feels really satisfying when you splash the ball out of the bunker just right!
Greenside bunkers
How do you feel when you realise your ball has ended up in a greenside bunker? Once the frustration has gone, are you confident that you’ll get up-and-down, or worried about racking up a high number?
Once you’ve stepped into the bunker and you’re sizing up your shot, what’s the usual plan of attack? Do you focus on the flag and go for the hole? Or is simply getting the ball onto the green a success in your book?
To make a decent bunker shot, you’ll want a club that has a rounded bottom with plenty of bounce. This will allow you to glide the wedge through the sand without digging into it so you make great contact with the ball.
You’ll want to dig your feet into the sand so you have a solid stance, and commit to a full swing to ensure you splash through the sand. You’ll get out of the sand every time when you head into a bunker with the latest Staff Model ZM golf wedge from Wilson.
The Wilson Staff Model ZM wedges
The Wilson Staff Model ZM wedge is a truly phenomenal bit of hardware. Forged using carbon steel, this wedge features a precision-milled face with Wilson’s deep ZM groove pattern for deeper and longer ball interaction.
The club looks fantastic when you’re standing over the ball at address, and the high center of gravity offers you consistent ball striking. This wedge comes in low, medium, and high bounce options, the latter being ideal for easy bunker escapes.
Should you feel like you struggle to make the right contact and get height on your wedge shots, the Staff Model ZM HT will be of interest to you.
Wilson has created this high-toe variation of the Staff Model wedge to give you better control around the greens. The club has a higher centre of gravity to give you better trajectory control, and the face and sole shape allows for varying degrees of openness to give you extra versatility.
If you’re considering getting yourself some new golf wedges this season, why not pop by the pro shop? We’d be happy to help you find the perfect set of wedges and help you into them with some lessons.
