“Wood in the bunker, wood in the head” Lee Trevino. That was one of thousands of Lee Trevinoisms. He thought any person trying to hit a fairway wood out of the bunker had lost his marbles. This was back in the day when woods were wooden and shafts were steel, and sweet spots were pee sized.
Today though with large sweet spots and lightweight heads and shafts and…..The Hybrid!! Fairway shots can be quite simple. The idea of using a hybrid from a fairway bunker is a lot like using a wedge with lots of bounce out of the green side bunker.
In a green side bunker, we like bounce because it helps us glide the wedge just under the sand, under the ball without digging too deep. In a fairway bunker the width of the hybrid bottom does the same thing. If we hit an iron from a fairway bunker and hit the sand first we have a fat or chunk and may still have a ball in the bunker. However, if you strike the sand a bit early with the hybrid, you’ll skip into the ball and have better results.
Perhaps the tough part about using the hybrid is that you’ll likely have to adjust the length of the swing for the distance you’ll want to cover. A little practice goes a long way with this shot, try a few swings with your most lofted hybrid using the clock system. swinging the lead arm to parallel to the ground would be 9:00. A little more would be 10:00 and so on.
If you want more precision, the best play is to take one more club than usual from that distance, grip down on the club to insure a slightly thin strike, set your feet and make a 3/4 swing using mostly the upper body so you don’t slip in the sand. Again, a little practice on this shot goes along way.
The worst shot is the fat or chunked shot out of the fairway bunker…To insure you don’t do that, use the hybrid or grip down on an extra club and swing 3/4. And…..maybe even practice for a few minutes in a fairway bunker.