The rough is a place where professional golfers often spend their time. As amateurs, we have to accept the fact that most of our game will be played in the long grass. It’s not surprising, if you agree with the above statement (and it is hard to argue against), that golfers don’t spend as much time practicing their shots in the rough.
Although we enjoy spending time on the practice field and at the driving range, it is not a habit to put in the work to improve our game after we miss a shot. What number of times have you hit your tee shot deep into the rough and then a second shot across to the rough or further in trouble?
If we took a bit more time to practice the techniques we might have found ourselves sitting on the fairway, or on the green. These tips have been invaluable to me in my years of hacking through jungle rough.
* Assess your lie and decide how aggressive or defensive your next shot can be – if you have a good lie with little grass likely to get between the club face and the ball, you can potentially go for a longer shot, even perhaps the green. You may need to be careful if the ball is deep down and you have to try to return to fairway.
Good Lies
* If you have good visibility of the ball in light rough, take a nicely-balanced normal stance, with the ball positioned roughly in the center of your stance and your weight very slightly favouring your front foot.
* Take one extra club than you normally would for the distance you are trying to achieve and grip slightly down the shaft.
* Make a deliberate, slow, smooth backswing and only take it to ¾ of your full swing, without cocking your wrists, aiming to catch the ball as cleanly as you can. Do not try to hit it too hard. Let the swing and club do all the heavy lifting.
* Make a smooth follow-through and finish as you would for a normal shot
To uncover slightly deeper lies
* As above, except take a shorter iron and make your swing a little steeper to try to keep as little grass as possible between the ball and the club face at point of impact. You will not be able to get the required distance. Instead, you should just aim to move the ball along the fairway.
To Buried Lies
* If the ball is really buried, there’s no point in trying to be heroic – your aim now should just be to pitch back to the nearest point of fairway, even if that is slightly backwards. This is better than trying to get greedy or playing the next shot in the rough.
* Take your most lofted golf club as the blade on a wedge will be the best implement to help you cut down through the grass to the ball.
* Open the blade very slightly and take a firm grip – the long grass will twist the club in your hand if your grip is too light.
* Once again, only take a smooth 3/4 swing, so that you remain as balanced as possible and swing as steeply as possible. You should not try and hit the ball hard enough to knock it off the ground. If you do, you run the risk of hitting it even further.
These tips will help you to not only be on the green for your 2nd shot but also get you back into play and have a better chance of hitting the green with the next shot. Although these tips are not the best, they can help you stay on the course and avoid letting the rough ruin your day.