How to get out of the sand every time with the PING BunkR Wedge

The PING BunkR wedge has been designed to offer ultimate forgiveness to golfers looking to get out of the sand every single time

For years, I’ve been waiting for something like the PING BunkR wedge to come out. In 2025, my prayers were answered.

My bunker play is awful. Not just bad, awful. For years I have hidden this part of my game in the shadows, pretending it wasn’t a problem in my quest for scratch golf, and ignoring any jibes from my playing partners when I did eventually end up in the sand. Not any of the best wedges of 2025 could help my game, and that was not without the lack of trying. I tried the Titleist SM10, the TaylorMade Hi-Toe 4, constantly blaming the tools rather than pilot.

As you can expect, when I saw the announcement of the PING Bunkr wedge, I had to see if this was the answer to all my problems. I may have had moments where I’ve completely missed the ball in the sand, but eyeing up this new offering from PING had me extremely optimistic.

Looks/Feel – 4/5

The first element that I noticed with the PING BunkR wedge was the sheer size of it compared to your standard lob or sand wedge. The overall head to playing profile will certainly make any golf purist look away in disgust, but for the amateur golfer who needs a golf club that will inspire confidence, this ticks all the boxes in that regard.

The keen-eyed golfer will see that the PING BunkR has the iconic EYE2-style shaping from days past, which I feel is a splendid touch from PING to attract more of us club golfers to this product. The high toe and full face of grooves means that you have a lot of options across the face to receive optimal results out of the sand.

Truth be told, though, it is quite ugly. There’s no beating around the bush with this one: it’s large profile, wide sole and EYE2-style does not make it a worth competitor to the likes of Callaway Opus and Mizuno Pro T-3 in the looks category. That being said, this club clearly has one goal in mind, and it’s not to blow you away from an aesthetic perspective. It’s to help you get out of the sand every single time.

The feel of the PING BunkR wedge follows a similar trend to the overall looks. The feedback off the face is somewhat muted, or dead in that it doesn’t give too much back to you. Whilst this may be perceived as a negative trait of the wedge, we’re not looking at this for the feel of a Titleist Vokey SM10. I would have liked the feedback to be a touch softer off the face, but you’d probably be moving towards the PING Glide 4.0 .

Technology – 5/5

Diving deep into the technology behind the PING BunkR is where you can see how helpful this club will be for a large amount of club golfers. The club has 14.5 degrees of bounce, accompanied with 64 degrees of loft. This will allow the club to glide through the sand, offering easy turf interaction and optimal launch to get you out of the sand in an effective manner. The bounce on the club is perhaps the highest I’ve ever seen, which may put some golfers off who are sweepers of the ball. With its main use being out of the sand, this is not a problem you will have,as your aim will be to ‘thump’ into the sand.

The extremely wide sole and EYE2 styling means that the golfer will be able to get onto the green with relative ease, no matter the strike on the face or impact position in the sand. Becasue of the way this club has been engineered, you don’t need to open the face like you would with other standard lob or sand wedges. This makes the club incredibly easy to set up to and execute.

All these technological elements of the PING BunkR show that it is offering one job, for the golfer who simply wants to get out of the sand. Any accomplished golfer who has confidence out of the bunker and wants versatility with their short game shots should not be looking at this club.

Performance – 4.5/5

I had extremely high expectations of the PING BunkR wedge, and perhaps became emotionally attached to the thought that it could revolutionise my short game and get me to scratch.

Whilst the scratch golf dream had other barriers in place, it must be said that the PING BunkR definitely did what it was supposed to do during our testing at Forest of Arden Golf Club.

The early testing phase was understandably difficult, as the club is different in playing profile and overall set-up out of the sand. I found myself subconsciously setting up to it like I would with a normal lob or sand wedge, attempting to open the face and therefore not letting the club do the work for me. Initially I couldn’t mentally trust the thought that I can set up square to the target and swing away. A few hours of exposure therapy later, and I was seeing results that I hadn’t seen for a very long time.

As soon as you trust the club’s technological marvels and swing with confidence, the response you get with the brushing of the sand is extremely satisfying. For someone who is used to hearing a clunk and then a cuss word after every bunker shot, I became infatuated by the results in the green side bunker, and started trying to test different types of shots with the club.

This is where the problems arose.

The PING BunkR wedge is not a versatile club. This is fine, as you’re still going to get out of the bunker either way. My problem with the wedge came once I started gaining confidence in the sand, and wanted to progress further with my bunker play so I could be versatile with landing spot, height, spin and more. To do this, you would have to change back to a standard lob or sand wedge to utilise the options they have around the green.

I found myself switching back to a standard wedge after a few weeks, with my technique fixed and confidence far improved. The PING BunkR wedge provides one concise purpose, and once you evolve past that, it’s time to change.

Overall – 4.5/5

The PING BunkR wedge did not stay in my bag for long, although I feel like that means it served its purpose. It improved my bunker play enough that I felt confident switching back to a standard lob wedge.

For what this club is built for, there’s nothing wrong with it whatsoever. There is no better club on the market right now that would help you get out of the bunker more efficiently. The question you have to ask yourself if you want this is ‘How will this go in my bag?’ Do you take your lob wedge out? Do you take out a metalwood?

For any amateur golfer who has bunker woes like me, purchasing the PING BunkR wedge over a new driver at triple the price seems an incredibly worthwhile investment. If you struggle to get out of the sand, this could easily save you 3 to 4 shots a round.

RRP: £190 / $179.99

LH: Yes

Lofts: 64

Finishes: Soft White Satin

Stock shaft: Lightweight Z-Z115

Stock grip: PING 360 Dyla-wedge Lite

Customizable: Not currently