In this video tip, Classic Swing Golf School’s Ted Frick and Stefany King demonstrate the thought process involved in hitting hybrid from a fairway bunker. As you’ll see here, mastering this shot will open up lots of options for you off the tee!
Ted Frick: Hi, I'm Ted Frick. I'm here with my Class A LPGA teaching star, Stefany King, at the Classic Swing Golf School here at the Legends Resort.
We are out on the Parkland, hole number 11. Course management, hole number 11, par five, dogleg left. Can't miss it on the left and I'm telling you, for a lot of people that are viewing this that have played the Legends, this bunker that we're staying in, a lot of times the corner of this bunker is where we're trying to aim. This is the good miss. We always say on the tee box, know where you can miss it. Left on 11 is no good, and those bunkers over there are deep so this a perfect miss. And today's tip is the one hitting the hybrid out of a fairway bunker when you have plenty of room and the lip of the bunker is not too high.
On this par five, Stef's got well over 230 yards just to the water and 300 yards to the green. Stef, what hybrid are you going to hit?
Stefany King: I'm hitting my six hybrid.
Ted Frick: All right, so the six hybrid. Real easy to get up. Hybrids, they have a very low center of gravity in the face of the club. Low COG equals high ball flight, high trajectory. The wider sole plate's not going to dig so hybrids have what they call a high MOI, moment of inertia, which means forgiveness. A hybrid out of a fairway bunker is very, very useful when you're not near the lip of the bunker.
What do you usually hit a six hybrid?
Stefany King: About 150.
Ted Frick: Okay, so out of a fairway bunker, what are you going to count for maybe? 150 or maybe less 10?
Stefany King: Probably about 140, 145.
Ted Frick: Okay, so maybe out of a fairway bunker using the hybrid, you might lose five to 10 yards, but it's still a very forgiving golf club in this situation.
Let’s go over the setup. In the setup here, the ball position is going to be center to ever so slightly forward of center in your stance. Then your weight distribution, if you were standing on a pressure mat, you're going to set up 60 percent of your pressure on the lead side of your body. It's a 60-40 set up lead-trail.
When Stef does her back swing, don't practice back swing. You can have a real quiet lower body so when she moves back, she's only going to be moving like 60-40 to her right. There's not a big weight distribution going back. It's like you start 60-40 then with a real steady head, you move 60-40.
Here at Classic Swing Golf School we do a lot of preaching on an end out path. We talk a lot about throwing the club head down and pushing down. We treat this just like being in the fairway.
Stef, go ahead and have some fun with it. She's all set up for success. And that was absolutely perfect. It's a wonderful lay up shot. Stef, good shot.
Stefany King: Thank you.