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Hitting the Ball or Over the Green on Bunker Shots
Most golfers understand that you don't hit the ball for a bunkers shot.
From sand, the biggest mistake you can make is to hit the ball. The ball will go too far past the green. Sometimes, it ends up in OB. If this happens, you start to fear bunker shots.
There are basically two causes for this.
1) Trying to hit it high
If you try to scoop the ball in the air, you will end up hitting the ball.
If the sand is little harder, the clubhead will bounce off the sand and hit the ball causing you to hit over the green.
With bunkers shots, don't try to lift the ball in the air. The loft will do it for you. You need to trust your loft and slide your clubhead under the ball.
When your clubhead touches the sand, the clubhead must be descending not ascending.
2) Lower your center of gravity
One of the most important aspects of the bunkers shot is to lower the center of gravity. To do that, you need to flex your knees more than normal pitch shots from similar distance.
As you know, you don't hit the ball from a bunker. The clubhead slides under the ball.
This means that the lowest point of the swing is below the ball.
The point that you want your clubhead to slide through is below your feet.
So you need to set up for it. If you watch tour pros, they flex their knees more and lower the center of gravity.