With the exception of this week’s historic eclipse, it’s been a great year for growing grass with a nice mix of sun and rain throughout the season. As a result, the rough at some of the local courses is long, healthy and willing to deliver you some bogeys. Let’s take a look at how can eclipse that.
When hitting a golf ball from the rough, your club head gets caught and slowed down by the grass, and the club face typically closes to take away all of the loft available. That makes it all the more difficult to hit your ball to the distance you want.
How can you hit better shots out of the rough?
First, analyze the lie. Is the ball sitting well down in the rough, or is it sitting up atop the grass? If it’s sitting up, you have a chance. If it’s sitting down and surrounded by tall spires of grass, you’ll have to change your strategy.
Second, you have to pick the right club for the job. Selecting the correct club for hitting out of the rough should not be based on the distance you normally or need to hit the ball but which club will get the ball in the air, or which club — if you hit a stinker — will not penalize you too badly.
I often see folks using a club with which they have no chance getting the ball in the air out of the rough. The result is predictable and penalizing.
Most of the time when you pick a distance-based club to hit out of the rough, the club gets slowed way down, the face closes and the ball goes half the intended distance.
When you’re in a rough situation, it’s best to face the music and select a more lofted club to use. After the grass has done the dirty work of closing the club face, your wise club selection will leave enough loft on the club to get the ball air born, resulting in more distance and a less-penalizing shot.
While swinging the club, use more of an arm swing with less body rotation to deliver the club on a steeper angle of attack. A steeper angle will deliver the club with less grass between the club and ball and give you a better chance of solid contact.
Oftentimes, holding the club a little tighter in the hands and opening the face a little at address will reduce the amount the face closes when it gets gobbled up by the long grass as well.
Play smart from the deep grass. Intelligent decisions often lead to the best results. Give this a try, and you will see the light again.
Peter Harris is the director of Golf at the Fore-U Golf Center in West Lebanon. His column appears weekly in the Recreation page during the golf season.