Amazon Finds: The Pocket Bunker

Golf season is here for many of us which means it’s finally time to cash in on all that offseason work you’ve been doing. If you’ve already gotten that maiden round of the year in, chances are you noticed a bit of rust has accumulated on your short game. The Pocket Bunker is a golf training aid that offers to help you do that, specifically for your sand game.

The Problem:

Let’s be honest: Regardless of the time of year, you probably don’t practice your bunker game enough, if at all.  For many of us, practice time is limited. When we do get to the range or practice facility, getting in a bunker to work out of the sand is pretty low on the priority list. That’s assuming a well-maintained practice bunker is available, which often isn’t the case.

The Solution: 

For $21.99, Amazon will ship you the Pocket Bunker to solve that problem. Golf training aids come in all shapes and sizes and the Pocket Bunker is certainly an example of that. Take a golf ball-like sphere, add what looks like plastic octopus appendages to the bottom half and, voila!,  the Pocket Bunker. It weighs reasonably close to a normal ball but the texture of the golf ball portion is more rubbery. Imagine the feel of a bouncy ball mixed with a cheap ionomer-covered golf ball and you’ll have an idea of what the Pocket Bunker feels like. 

Those octopus-like appendages are a firm but flexible rubber and that’s how the Pocket Bunker attempts to mimic bunker play. Strike those legs too high and you’ll get a thin shot. Too low, a fat shot. In the middle … just right. Or at least that’s what the Pocket Bunker website says.

How I Found It: 

If you’re like me, you wouldn’t normally think of training aid solutions for bunker play. Amazon agrees. I entered “golf training aids” in their search menu, scrolled … scrolled … and scrolled some more. (Yes, these are the confessions of a training-aid sucker.) Finally, after a seemingly endless stream of full-swing aids and their knockoffs, I found the Pocket Bunker.

How It Worked

I’m a perfect test case for the Pocket Bunker in a lot of ways. Being a dad with three highly active little ones, I don’t get nearly as much practice time as I’d like. When I do, I want to work on full-swing ball striking.  Should I practice more from the bunker? Absolutely but, again, time is a limited and precious commodity. I also live in the northeast U.S., so my season is abbreviated. As a result, my bunker game isn’t exactly a strong point and I know it. I probably play away from the traps and play a little more conservative than I normally should in the hopes of avoiding them. Pocket Bunker to the rescue?

Sort of.

It works exactly as advertised in that you can hit fat, thin and good shots if you strike the Pocket Bunker as directed. The Pocket Bunker can also be used off any surface, grass, turf or carpet, so indoor off-season bunker practice is possible. You do need a net, though. The Pocket Bunker is not a wiffle ball that you can pummel into your drywall without consequence.

How It Didn’t Work

One of the best nuggets of advice for building your golf bag arsenal is to carry wedges with varying degrees of bounce. Why? Because all bunkers are not the same. Get into light, powder-like sand and you’ll need a wedge with a lot of bounce. Firmer sand, or the occasional still-wet sand, generally requires a wedge with less bounce. How you approach the shot changes, too. The light fluffy stuff requires you to strike the sand farther behind the ball than firmer sand.

The Pocket Bunker can’t replicate any of that. An essential component of a great bunker game is the ability to read the lie and conditions and adjust accordingly. The Pocket Bunker is consistent with only one lie and one set of conditions. That said, at $22 a pop, it certainly has value in helping you learn the basic mechanics of bunker play. It will only take you so far, though.

The Bottom Line

If you’re hard-pressed for practice time but a few backyard swings is something you can manage, you might want to try the Pocket Bunker. At a relatively low price for a training aid, it can help you learn the basic mechanics of effective bunker play. To truly master that shot, though, you’re going to have to find a real practice bunker.