Bunker Shot
A bunker shot is a stroke played from a bunker, the sand-filled hollow found beside greens and along fairways on a golf course.
What is a bunker shot?
A bunker shot is any stroke a golfer plays while their ball lies in a bunker. The Rules of Golf define a bunker as “a specially prepared area of sand,” often a hollow where turf or soil has been removed, and describe bunkers as areas meant to test a player’s ability to play from sand.
Most golfers use the term to mean the greenside version, which is unusual. No other common stroke in golf asks the player to deliberately avoid hitting the ball first: here, the club enters the sand around two inches behind the ball, and the displaced sand lifts it up and out. Golfers call this an explosion shot or a splash shot.
Because bunkers guard most greens, every golfer faces these shots regularly. Understanding the term also helps when following golf on TV, where commentators talk about players “getting up and down from the sand” or recording a “sand save.”
How a bunker shot works
The sand does the work. On a greenside bunker shot, the clubhead slides through the sand underneath the ball, and the resulting cushion of moving sand carries the ball over the bunker’s edge, known as the lip. Since sand absorbs so much of the club’s energy, the swing needs real speed even though the ball travels a short distance.
The club built for this job is the sand wedge, which typically has 54 to 56 degrees of loft. Its defining feature is bounce, the angle at which the back edge of the sole hangs lower than the leading edge. Bounce lets the club skim through the sand instead of digging into it.
The design traces back to Gene Sarazen, who built a wedge with a raised flange on its back and used it to win the 1932 Open Championship at Prince’s Golf Club. Before Sarazen’s club, golfers mostly tried to pick the ball cleanly off the sand, with unreliable results.
Greenside vs fairway bunker shots
One term, two shots that work in almost opposite ways. A greenside bunker shot is a short, lofted escape, while its fairway counterpart is a full-distance shot that happens to start from sand.
| Greenside bunker shot | Fairway bunker shot | |
| Location | Bunkers surrounding the green | Bunkers along the fairway |
| Goal | Lift the ball out softly, close to the hole | Advance the ball a long way toward the green |
| Typical club | Sand wedge or lob wedge | Mid iron, hybrid, or fairway wood, depending on the lip |
| Contact | Sand first, about two inches behind the ball | Ball first, as clean as possible |
The contrast in contact explains why a golfer can be comfortable with one and struggle with the other. They are separate skills that share a surface.
Bunker shot rules
Rule 12 of the Rules of Golf governs play from bunkers. Before making a stroke, a player must not deliberately touch the sand to test its condition, and must not touch the sand with the club during a practice swing, in the area right in front of or behind the ball, or on the backswing. Breaking these rules costs two strokes in stroke play or loss of the hole in match play.
Plenty is still allowed. A player may dig their feet into the sand to take a stance, remove loose impediments such as leaves and stones (permitted since the 2019 rules update), set their bag down in the bunker, and rake the sand after playing out.
On terminology: many golfers say “sand trap,” but the USGA and R&A use only the word “bunker” in the rule book, which makes bunker the official term. Large natural sandy areas, often called waste areas, are not bunkers at all, so a player may ground the club there without penalty.
How hard is a bunker shot?
Statistics answer this well. A sand save means getting the ball into the hole in two strokes from a greenside bunker, one shot out plus one putt, and PGA Tour players convert around 50% of their sand save chances in a typical season, according to stats site Golfity. Michael Kim’s 71.54% in 2025 is the best single-season mark since the tour began tracking the stat in 1980, according to Golf Compendium, while Tom Watson’s 60.14% led the tour in 1981.
Amateur numbers sit far lower. Arccos shot data cited by The Left Rough puts the sand save rate for a 5-handicap golfer at 28%, and TheGrint’s user data shows 20% to 30% as normal for single-digit handicaps. If the best players in the world fail about half the time, an amateur who simply gets out of the bunker and onto the green has done fine.
Related Golf Terms
- Pull hook — A shot that starts left of target and curves further left.
- Push slice — A shot that starts right of target and curves further right.
- High draw — A high ball flight that curves gently from right to left.
- Power fade — A controlled left-to-right shot hit with full power.
- Push draw — A shot that starts right of target and curves back to the left.
Frequently Asked Questions
What club do you use for a bunker shot?
A sand wedge for greenside bunkers, thanks to its high loft and generous bounce. From fairway bunkers, golfers pick whatever club covers the distance while still clearing the bunker’s lip.
Do you actually hit the ball on a greenside bunker shot?
No. The club strikes the sand roughly two inches behind the ball, and the sand pushes the ball out.
Can you ground your club in a bunker?
No. Touching the sand with the club right behind or in front of the ball, or during a practice swing or backswing, brings a two-stroke penalty in stroke play.
What is a fried egg lie?
A ball half-buried in the crater made by its own landing. The shot is harder because the surrounding sand kills spin and makes the ball come out lower and hotter.
Sources
- USGA. “Rule 12: Bunkers.” Accessed July 3, 2026.
https://www.usga.org/content/usga/home-page/rules-hub/topics/bunkers.html - USGA. “Rules of Golf Definitions: Bunker.” Accessed July 3, 2026.
https://www.usga.org/content/usga/home-page/rules/rules-2019/committee-procedures/definitions.html - R&A. “The Rules of Golf, Rule 12.” Accessed July 3, 2026.
https://www.randa.org/en/rog/the-rules-of-golf/rule-12 - Golf Compendium. “Yearly Sand Save Leaders on the PGA Tour.” Accessed July 3, 2026.
https://www.golfcompendium.com/2018/10/sand-save-leaders-pga-tour.html - Golfity. “What Is Sand Save Percentage?” Accessed July 3, 2026.
https://golfity.com/blog/what-is-sand-save-percentage/ - The Left Rough. “Golf Statistics by Handicap: A Realistic Look.” Accessed July 3, 2026.
https://theleftrough.com/golf-statistics-by-handicap/ - TheGrint. “Improve Greenside Bunker Saves %.” Accessed July 3, 2026.
https://thegrint.com/range/post/greenside-bunker-par-saves - Golf Digest. “Gene Sarazen Designed the Modern Sand Wedge.” Accessed July 3, 2026.
https://www.golfdigest.com/story/did-you-know-gene-sarazen-designed-the-modern-sand-wedge-with-an-assist-from-billionaire-howard-hughes - Golf Digest. “Fighting Words: Breaking Down Golf’s Most Disputed Terms.” Accessed July 3, 2026.
https://www.golfdigest.com/story/fighting-words-breaking-down-the-7-most-disputed-terms-in-golf
