I keep my hands on the inside of my front thigh for every club. So the amount of forward press depends on the ball position.

Not much more than an inch or two of forward press imo. I'm actually not sure how you're even able to make a swing with 8 inches of forward press

Alright Golf Channel. Take it easy with the puns and wordplay

having a foward press at address doesnt mean much if your shaft doesnt have foward lean at impact. having a foward press at address can help you get back to that position at impact. each iron should have different foward lean at impact. i.e. a pw will have much more foward shaft lean than a 5i.

at address my pw grip is pointing at my left pocket. my 5i is more at my inner thigh. i good way to get a better idea of proper shaft lean is to place the bottom of your iron head on a flat surface such as hard wood floor or pavement. each iron will have a bit more forward lean as you go down from 3i-pw.

ball position should be slightly different for every club but it should stay in same position relative to your left side. what i mean is you want to ball to be slightly behind the lowest point of your swing so you are always swinging down and trapping your irons. therefore try placing the ball in line with your left nipple for right handers. the bottom of your swing should be about at your left arm shoulder line. so you want to place the ball just before that, or your right nipple. as you move up to longer clubs just move your right foot further right to widen your stance but keep the ball position over your left nipple. it will look like the ball position is getting slight left of center as you hold longer clubs, but in reality it is still over your left nipple.

does it start out in your intended line and then start to slice? or is it a pull slice? or does it start slightly right and go further right?

can be somthing as simple as a set up tweak to something more major like swing flaw. i tend to believe that there is considerable differences in iron shots and driver swings so because your hitting your irons solid doesnt mean you might need to make some small changes to your driver swing.imo.

there must be because my standard ball flight with my woods is a big hook and with my irons it's kind of a push fade

So Im looking into finally getting an actual pair of golf shoes and was hoping yall could help. Looking for comfortable, durable, and inexpensive. Id say my max is in the $50 range, but really cheaper would be better.

Double post oops

In that range I would say foot joy greenjoys are a solid choice. I would definitely shop for a closeout/last years model at a site like golflocker.com

Also had decent luck with Etonic before I went exclusively to True Linkswear

Concur on fj greenjoys at that price.

See if you can find an older model of the Adidis Tour 2.0/3.0 whatever, they are really good shoes.

Someone remind me how to hit out of bunkers, please.

Here is basically what I do:

- Open stance 30-45 degrees.
- Dig feet in
- More weight on front foot
- Open clubface
- Keep lower body as still as possible
- Hit a couple inches behind ball
- Accelerate through the shot

I do all this but I keep hitting the sand farther than the ball. I think I'm not opening up my blade enough and am hooding it when it hits the sand. It feels like I'm hitting it "too fat".

I used to be good enough at getting out of them but now my home course has 6 bunkers so I'm never in them anymore. Played a links course Monday and took 5 strokes to get out of 2 bunkers and still wasn't out of either of them. Yikes.

I don't know if this will help or not, but I was in the same boat as you. I had watched videos, read up on the technique, spent 10 minutes on a lesson in a bunker but I still couldn't get the shot. On day after a round of golf, I took a bucket of range balls into a bunker with me and I didn't leave until I had figured out the shot. I played around with all of the variables; open clubface, square clubface, open stance, square stance, etc. I'm still a mediocre player out of them, but that one session proved incredibly valuable for me as a learning tool.
(Phil Mickelson's dvd is a god-send for bunker play too)

One thing you can do to help "feel" a good bunker shot: open the clubface and put it in your left hand only. practice getting the club nice and steep and slapping a dollar-bill sized divot out of the sand. Accelerate the club so it at least points to the sky on the through swing. This should help you learn to use the bounce on the club a little bit, you should feel the club thump the sand and then glide through it.

I'm a Truelinks guy.

and IMHO

Shoes and eyeglasses are two items I never flinch at paying a lot of money for. You wear shoes all day, and my experience you get what you pay for.

move the ball two inches or so up in your stance so the bottom of your swing is behind the ball. The rest looks about right for a blast shot.

I don't have a problem hitting consistently behind the ball. It's just the ball goes nowhere. Usually hits the lip of the bunker then just rolls back to me. I don't get the height nor the distance out of it. But sand sprays way up onto the green like it should - so I think I'm swinging through hard enough.

One thing that you can add to your setup is that your hands should be very low at address.

Check out this Luke Donald video:

2 keys:
- low hands (he doesn't mention it, but it's there)
- handle of the club pointing back towards his belly

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VvXiKPDEUdM

Yeah a few things I see there. I'm not putting the ball that forward in my stance for sure. Also as you say his hands are low and his knees are very bent. He also talks about if you have a big divot you are hitting the sand with your leading edge as opposed to more of the bounce. I tend to have a massive divot in which I get down to the dark sand. Nice video - those flops he hits out of the sand look so sweet.

Def start with ball more forward and shaft leaning slightly back. Gotta expose the bounce, sounds like the leading edge is digging in.

Utley teaches beginners to hit bunker shots with the shaft leaning wayyyy back.

shallower swing helps.

i became a way better bunker player when i shallowed out my swing. getting steep through a reg. bunker shot was killing my consistency. im only steep when its plugged.

got the tip fron greg norman on gc.

When you say shallow you mean a flatter swing? I can see that.

Though I'm picturing me opening my wedge as much as possible and taking a flat swing and can't see how I won't blade it lol. Definitely need to find a bunker to practice in.

You don't have to hit bunker shots perfectly but you really have to be able to get out of them in 1 stroke. And if you can't get out in 1 stroke you may not get out in 2 or 3 and that just lights your score on fire. ESC saves you for handicap purposes but I still want to finish out every hole regardless. Had to pick up twice Monday. Embarassing.

Sounds like you are just using the leading edge instead of the bounce. Likely have your hands forward at impact.

Hands should be behind the ball at address(opposite of forward press) and then use the bounce to splash the ball out. It should sound like you are smacking the sand rather than digging into the sand.

Yeah I think that's definitely the gist of it. As I said in another thread I'm incorrectly forward-pressing my irons a ton (like 8 inches with 5iron and 12" or more with lob wedge) so I'm certain I have my hands forward at impact with the sand.

Thanks for everyone's input. There's a muni with a ****ty bunker like 2 minutes away I'll try to practice this by the weekend and let you know the results.

Hands behind the ball sir on bunker shot and follow through, bunker shots are easy now cause of those two tips.