Programme 1

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2 x 1 Hour Lessons

3 x 1 Hour Lessons

2 x 1 Hour Lessons

1 x 1 Hour Short Game Lesson

2 x 1 Hour Short Game Lessons

4 x 1 Hour Lessons

1 Hour Course Strategy Lesson

2 x 1 Hour Short Game Lessons

2 Hour Playing Lesson

£65

RRP £75

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£125

RRP £155

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£210

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Duration of Lesson

Description

Price

30 Minutes

One-to-One Lesson - A lesson with Darren tailored

£10

to your requirements

1 hour

One-to-One Lesson - A lesson with Darren tailored

£20

to your requirements

30 minutes x 6

A Series of One-to-One Lessons - 6 for the

£50

regular price of 5

1 hour x 6

A Series of One-to-One Lessons - 6 for the

£100

regular price of 5

1 hour

For 2 - 4 people - A lesson with Darren tailored

£30

to your requirements

1 hour x 6

A Series of Lessons for 2 - 4 sharing - 6 for the

£125

regular price of 5

30 Minutes

Lesson with Video Analysis - Using V-1 video

£15

and swing comparison technology

(Juniors £12)

1 hour

Lesson with Video Analysis - Using V-1 video

£25

and swing comparison technology

(Juniors £20)

30 Minutes

Junior Lesson - Individual coaching with

£9

Darren

1 hour

Junior Lesson - Individual coaching with

£18

Darren

30 Minutes x 6

A series of Junior One-to-One Lessons - 6 for

£45

the regular price of 5

1 hour x 6

A Series of Junior One-to-One Lessons - 6 for

£90

the regular price of 5

1 hour

Course Management - Darren will walk with you

£30

and you will receive on course advice

2 hour

Course Management - Play golf with Darren

£50

and receive on course advice

1 hour

Sloping lie lesson - A One-to-One on the sloping

£25

lie mat

For many this shot is the most daunting shot in golf. You go into the bunker hoping to get the ball out in one stroke. Actually the bunker shot is the easiest shot in golf because it is the only shot where you don’t actually hit the ball, rather you impact the sand and the ball floats out on this cushion of sand.
It is understandable that bunkers have this fix over golfers, after all bunkers are placed on a course to make it harder and the area of sand is called a bunker, a trap or a hazard all of which evoke fear and danger, areas where we don’t want to be. Lastly courses throughout the world have named bunkers; St Andrews has the Coffins, Hell Bunker (we can only begin to imagine why they are called this, we can only imagine some hapless golfer thrashing away) and the daddy of them all is the Road Hole Bunker. In America at Oakmont GC we have the Church Pews. Do we need divine intervention to escape this bunker? These bunkers are synonymous the world over.

With a little help and guidance you too can find bunkers to be a friendly place
to be ………  

Before we start

I would recommend that you play this shot with a sand iron. The sand iron has been designed to help you play the shot, it has bounce. It is the only club in your set which has this.

Set-up

The first thing we do in order to help you play the shot well is open the clubface, this increases the amount of bounce on the club plus it gives the club more loft which will help you get over the lip and land the ball nice and soft. We open the club face by holding the leading edge to 12 o' clock and turning the clubface so the leading edge now points to 1 o'clock, now grip it. You grip the club slightly down the shaft.

Now I will take you through the set up one stage at a time

1. Stand square/parallel to the target line with the clubface aiming right of target.

2. Place the ball in the middle of your stance.

3. With the aid of a half circle move round it so that your clubface is on your target line. Now your body lines are aiming left or open of your target line.

4. Now dig your feet in to get good stability. The ball line that you made in the sand should be pointing to your left toe.

Pro’s Tip

How do you know how much sand is under your ball? Or how soft or hard the sand is? All this is done by digging your feet in the sand; from this you can tell the depth, if your feet dig in easy or more with more effort. This can be calculated in your set-up and swing in order to make the necessary adjustments.

Playing the Shot

If we have got the set-up correct, this part will be a lot easier. The club is swung in what is described in many a golfing publication as an out to in swing path. This is because the club is swung across the ball to target line. I prefer to say the club is swung along the body alignment with an open blade.

On the backswing you want to feel that you hinge your wrists a little more and don’t be afraid to swing the club back so that your hands are chest height. Now on the down swing feel that the club is swung back along the line of your body, that being to the left of the target and let the clubface alignment do the rest. You should always follow through so your hands are now chest height, this will ensure a smooth acceleration of the clubhead through the shot.

Striking the ball

I have mentioned earlier that you don’t hit the ball, you actually aim to strike about 2 inches (5cm) behind the ball. You need to strike the ball nice and positive because all the sand between the clubface and the ball absorbs some of the power in the shot. When playing the shot clubface alignment is of crucial importance, always maintain this open facing the sky position. Something for you to think of: imagine a £1 coin on the face and try to keep it on the face through the impact area.

Practice

Practicing this shot will increase your confidence when you go out on the course, and you will be less fearful of bunkers, with the result that you will be less likely to end up in one. That’s how the golfing Gods work; they like to give you shots that cause you to sweat a little. Start by playing 10, or even a tube, of balls out of the bunker and see how many you can get out in one shot, record this and try to beat it the next time you practice. After you have got 8 out of 10 balls successfully out of the bunker first time progress on to getting the balls into a 3 yard circle of tees, record your score and just progress from there.

Chip and Run

There is nothing quite like hitting a nice high shot that stops dead next to the hole. But how often do you pull this sort of shot off?

When you have nothing to go over or your ball is just off the green there is no need to fly the ball high through the air, the most consistent shot is a chip and run. Here the ball flies over the rough ground in front of you, lands on the green and then runs like a putt towards the flag.

What club/s do you use?

You may use any club for this, Tiger Woods has from time to time used a 3-wood. I personally prefer to use a pitching wedge, 8-iron or 6-iron. It doesn’t matter what clubs you use, the only thing I would say is that use the club that gets the ball closest to the hole.

Why use different clubs?

The different clubs gives you different amounts of flight and roll. So if you want the ball to roll more then you can use a different club which will give you the desired amount. It all depends on how much ground lies between you and the green or how far the flag is on the green (if flag at back of the green then more roll is required to get the ball all the way back). The ratios are shown below.

Set-Up

1. Place the ball just back of centre of your stance.

2. Keep your hands in the normal position which should appear now ahead of the ball.

3. Have a narrower than normal stance, that is slightly open to your intended target.

4. You should have more weight favouring your left side (right for lefties), this will promote a good crisp strike

Playing the shot

You’re just playing this shot with your hands and arms, don’t keep your body rigid, let it react to what your hands and arms are doing. The desired length of the swing if you relate it to a clock face is 8 o'clock backswing, 4 o'clock through swing, make sure your hands are ahead of the ball as you strike it. Tempo is everything to play the shot successfully. The shot shouldn't be hurried with no definite hit at the golf ball.

From the impact picture opposite , you can see that my hands are back to the original set-up position which is ahead of the ball. Any flicking or breaking down of the left wrist will result in an inconsistent shot. You can see as I move through to the follow through, opposite bottom, the left wrist position has remained and the left arm and club are in alignment.

Things to consider when playing the shot

As you can see from the picture opposite I am not aiming towards the flag. This is because you have to allow for the contours of the green which will affect the roll of the ball (contour is shown by the arrow). 

Pick a landing area (this has been identified by the hula hoop) for the club you have selected, taking into consideration the contours of the green. So split the shot into 2 segments, roll and flight.

The stroke should feel like you are throwing the ball underhand into your landing area as demonstrated in the pictures below.