Amazing footage of Brett Rumford during a bunker practice

Watch these 5:30 minutes of bunkerplay heaven!

This is one of the best ever bunker practice sessions ever seen!

Brett Rumford, a European Tour player, former PGA Tour Player, and many time winner on several of the best professional tours, is known to be one of the best bunkerplayers in the world.

His overall Short Game is amazing and therfor he is also known as Mr. Short Game on the European Tour. At the Nordea Masters at Barsebäck G&C Club, 2017, Brett had a little bunker practice session after his round. After hitting 2 minutes non-stop “gimmies” from the sand, I thought it would be cool to record the master in action, and it ended up with a 5:30 minute video. Here it is, enjoy:

What can be learned from this video?

I won’t be going into very specific details about the technique (Watch this video to learn more about Brett Rumford’s bunker setup). The camera angle is way off and does not allow a lot of detailed swing-analysis, but that wasn’t either the point with the video. But I take notice of a few things in the video:

Listen and learn

Turn up the sound and listen when the ball is hit. It’s like an explosion in the sand. This “explosion” comes from the bounce (learn more about the bounce here) being smashed into the sand with quite a lot of speed.

Fly it

The first 3:50 minutes the shots are hit to a flag in the back end of the green. A common thought for a pin-position like that, with that much green to work with in front of the pin, would be to let the ball roll the way up to the pin, instead of flying it all the way. But that is indeed not what Mr. Rumford is doing. Most of the shots lands a few meters in front of the pin, take one bounce and then checks up beside the pin. So why would he fly the ball all the way to the pin? Off cause no-one can know except himself, but my guess would be these reasons:

A lower releasing/running bunkershot will require less loft on the club, which would decrease the bounce, and therefor make the contact more difficult.

A such good player is used to see the ball fly with a certain known flight (height/trajectory) and with that flight distance control is easiest. So why chance the flight, and make distance controle harder because of an unfamiliar trajectory?

It’s smooth!

Every shot is hit with a smooth acceleration of the club through the ball.

Watch the rhythm and tempo of the swings. It looks so smooth, relaxed, soft, and in sync. There is absolutly no tension, and everything seems to perfectly harmonized.

Use the video as inspiration to your own bunkerplay. Watch it and enjoy every second of it. This is how bunkershots should be played.

All the best luck from the sand!

-World Of Short Game – Nicolai Cetti

If you need help with your bunkerplay, or other parts of the Short Game, you can order your Online Lesson right here!

It should be made clear that World Of Short Game and Nicolai Cetti has no relation to Brett Rumford. This is video recorded from “outside” the ropes.