Golf Technique: Playing Out Of The Rough
By Kerry Graylor
Every golfer has experience of the rough and while in the ideal world your golf technique would be so good that you would never encounter it, in real life even the professionals have to forget about that and concentrate on how to play out of the rough after they already got in it.
There is certainly a lot of skill involved in playing in - or out of - the rough. Greg Norman has said that he can hit a ball further and straighter from out of the rough than from anywhere else. That should be your inspiration as you struggle through the rough of your local golf course.
Most times your lie in the rough will be what is known as a flyer. Flyers tend to go a lot further than you expected because the grass gets between your club face and the ball when you hit it and absorbs a lot of the backspin. Without this, the ball seems to keep going forever. Take a middle length to short club, always less than you would use for the same distance on the fairway.
To minimize the impact of the grass for a flyer, position yourself a little more forward of the ball than you normally would and take a more vertical back swing so that the face of the club comes down steeper and more cleanly onto the ball without cutting through so much grass. Do not hit the ball harder than you normally would, but let the swing do the work to bring the ball out.
A different type of lie is when your ball is almost hidden in thick grass. Here the ball needs to be brought up out of it and the pitching wedge is usually taken for this shot. Grasp the club firmly, open up your stance and have the head of the club aligned square with the target line. Some golfers aim the club face a little to the right of the target and rely on the grass to turn the face square on impact. You will probably want to experiment with this lie in a few practice sessions.
Occasionally the ball will find a perch lie, where it sits on top of a thick clump of grass. This is an unstable lie and you must take care not to dislodge it as you prepare, or you will be given a penalty shot. You can take this shot as if the ball was on a tee, but be careful to hit it cleanly without touching the ground or this may unsettle the ball and spoil your shot.
For more golf technique tips, study the advice of the professionals in a golf book or golf DVD.
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