on Worldwide Golf

CONTENTS

ESCAPE THE ROUGH

WITH JEFF WINTHER

You’ve got a pretty horrible lie, seven or eight yards to the green with a short pin. A difficult situation, but how do we get out of this? 

Firstly, you need to assess the lie to find out if you can bump and run this, flop this, and so on. You need to decide the on the easiest way, and choose the right club. More often than not, it’s going to be a high-lofted wedge.

Let’s take the example of attempting more of a flop shot with a bit of a buried lie. Open the clubface completely, hold the grip with your left hand first, and then attach your right hand so you can create the most loft you can to get the ball up in the air. Put your weight forward, roughly 70 percent on your lead side.

 Remember to take practice swings to gauge the rough’s density and don’t forget you need speed to get it up. You don’t open the face and just tap it, because you need it to go high up and stop short. Put the ball a bit forward in your stance and whack it, that way you get a nice smooth high flight with no spin and it trickles down to the pin.

When the ball is sitting more on top of the grass, you may want to pitch it just shy of the green and make it release a little more. The face should be open a little bit with it further back in your stance, hands in front of the ball, weight 60 percent on the lead side. Chip it easily with a lower flight.

Now the really tricky stuff is when you’re in knee-high rough. It’s essential again that you have your wedge with the most loft. You’ll need an open face as the rough has a good chance of wrapping around the hosel of the shaft and shutting the face.

Ideally, you need it the face open as much as possible with a strong left-hand grip to keep it open through impact. Try to pick a place to land it and release it down to the pin. This is unpredictable and a difficult shot, so if you can any chance to practice this shot, then take it!