The length of your backswing depends on how far you need the ball to travel.

The important thing to remember in the bunker is to accelerate through your shot.

The bunker shot is the only shot where you are not trying to strike the ball. You want to hit the ground behind the ball, letting the sand lift the ball out. If you do not accelerate through the sand, the sand will absorb the energy from the clubhead and the shot will go nowhere. The acceleration of the clubhead must also occur because the clubhead will decelerate itself when you make contact with the sand by the laws of resistance, so just to keep the original speed of the clubhead in the sand, you must accelerate. Come in steep on the ball and finish high on your follow through. This promotes more of a "V" type swing, which will also help increase the height of your shots.

Finally, as with all finesse shots, practice, practice, practice!!! The only way to get better is to work on your weaknesses, so get out to your local practice facility and spend about 1/2 per session in the sand.

__________________
Gord

Quote of the month:
"It's easy to see golf not as a game at all but as some whey-faced, nineteenth-century Presbyterian minister's fever dream of exorcism achieved through ritual and self-mortification." ~Bruce McCall