How to stop hitting it thin it from greenside bunkers

There are few things more demoralizing than having visions of executing a tidy up-and-down from a greenside bunker and then thinning it over the green. Or worse — hitting the lip and ending up right back where you started.

It’s a mistake GOLFTEC coach Brad Thorberg sees often. But there’s good news: it’s easily fixable!

The cause

According to Thorberg, players often take the club too far back on these greenside shots, which results in a deceleration at impact. The result? Catching it fat or thin.

How to fix it

You want to accelerate through the ball, Thorberg says. So the best thing a player can do is to take a swing to waist high on the way back and try finishing at shoulder height. That will help ensure that you’re accelerating through impact.

“Think of your wedge like a matchstick,” Thorberg says. “And you’re trying to light the match right under the ball.”

When the drill is executed properly, voila! The ball pops out like magic.

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As a four-year member of Columbia’s inaugural class of female varsity golfers, Jessica can out-birdie everyone on the masthead. She can out-hustle them in the office, too, where she’s primarily responsible for producing both print and online features, and overseeing major special projects, such as GOLF’s inaugural Style Is­sue, which debuted in February 2018. Her origi­nal interview series, “A Round With,” debuted in November of 2015, and appeared in both in the magazine and in video form on GOLF.com.