SECTION

I

YOU HIT IT THERE, NOW PLAY IT

–No.–

1

Deep Rough

When the average golfer goes into the rough, too often he gets up to his ball and the first question he asks himself is, What club do I need to reach the green? That is putting the cart before the horse, in my book. Sure the distance is one factor, but the first thing to look at is your lie. It’s no good fingering a wood when you have a sand wedge lie on your hands. The lie you have in most instances dictates the type of shot you have to hit.

—JOHNNY MILLER

I AGREE WITH JOHNNY MILLER— it’s a huge mistake if you don’t first assess the lie of your ball. Examine and determine if grass is covering the ball. Look at how much grass is between the ball and the line of approach that the club shaft—especially the hosel—and clubface must take. Also check the direction the grass is growing. When it grows away from the target—the situation we’re dealing with in this discussion—realize the grass will slow your clubhead and close the clubface. This happens because the hosel gets caught by the grass while the toe of the club keeps moving forward. The result is that the clubface twists and closes at impact.

USE MORE CLUB

When the ball is nestled in the rough and the grass is growing towards you, use one or two more clubs than usual. For instance, use a five-iron if you’d normally use a six- or seven-iron. For longer shots, unless you are unusually strong, you’ll do better with a lofted fairway wood, such as a four-, five-, or seven-wood, than a long iron. In the rough, the sole of a fairway wood will part the grass and slide through easier than a mid-iron or long iron.

Aim the body left and assume a slightly open stance, ball positioned in the middle or just slightly forward of the midpoint of your body, and grip the club with a slightly open clubface.

Test the rough with a practice swing to determine how much resistance it will offer to your swing.

—BYRON NELSON

TAKE AN ABRUPT SWING

Take a swing that is more upright than normal. Tighten your grip pressure and hit abruptly down into the ball. Hold the clubface open and make a steeper angle of approach than normal. This reduces the tendency to catch the grass too early in the forward swing. Keeping the clubface open, follow through with a full swing and finish.

When in deep rough, grip the club with a slightly open clubface and make a steeper angle of approach than normal.

HITTING FROM THE CLOVER

Clover in the rough and on the fairways presents a special problem. When it gets between the clubface and the ball, it reduces backspin and often produces a flyer. Flyers are shots that have reduced backspin, lower trajectory, and longer roll and carry. They are most likely to occur when the clover is high enough to get between the ball and clubface, but not so high as to reach to the top of the hosel. This holds true, as well, if water, including dew, rain, or liquid from plant material, reduces friction (which is necessary to promote backspin). Like a knuckleball or splitter in baseball, the ball will fly erratically.

Allow for the added distance you expect by swinging three-quarters or dropping down one club. You can also open the clubface and play a fade or cut.

SHOT BRIEFS

DEEP ROUGH

Common Mistakes

Selecting the wrong club, that is, not matching the lie with the appropriate club; not using a club with enough loft

In deeper grass, failing to open the clubface

Stance and Setup

Take an open stance

Open the clubface

Position ball in middle or slightly forward of the middle of your stance

Pre-swing Thoughts

Minimize club’s contact with grass on backswing and downswing

Imagine a left-to-right ball flight

Swing

Take a steeper backswing than normal

Tighten the grip pressure and hold the club open through impact

–No.–

2

Fluffy Rough

Many amateurs tend to lose their wits when they leave the fairway. It’s as important to coolly pre-plan trouble shots as it is drives and approaches from closely-mown turf—more important, in fact, because of the risk of further compounding your original error.

—JACK NICKLAUS

PICTURE A GOLF BALL SITTING ON 90 PERCENT AIR and 10 percent grass. If you ground your club behind this ball, you could dislodge it. And if that happens, the official rules of golf are clear—you shall be deemed to have caused the ball to move. The penalty shall be one stroke. The ball shall be replaced unless the movement of the ball occurs after the player has begun his swing and he does not discontinue his swing.

WELCOME TO FLUFFY ROUGH

How you hit a ball in such a lie depends on your location and your immediate objective. If the green is in sight—maybe 165 yards away with a clear shot to the pin—you would combine some of the techniques used to hit shots from other troublesome lies, notably, shots from a fairway bunker (see No. 8) or from a flyer lie (see No. 3).

First, take a cautious approach—don’t make the mistake of grounding your club behind the ball. Hover it at all times. This is a lie that you’ll get at easier with a fairway or utility wood (a seven-wood, for example) than a long iron (two-, three-, or four-iron). So if you have a choice between hitting a 200-yard shot with a three-iron or a seven-wood, go with the wood.

When hitting shorter clubs from a fluffy lie in the rough, make sure you pick the ball cleanly off the top of the grass.

STAND ERECT

Stand more erect than usual and grip down an inch on the club. This will raise the bottom of the swing and encourage you to sweep the ball. Position the ball in the middle of the stance for short- and mid-irons or slightly forward of the midpoint if you’re hitting a wood or long iron.

Prior to the swing, remind yourself to concentrate on tempo and keeping the clubhead moving level through impact. With shorter clubs, make a special effort not to swing under the ball with a deeply angled approach, but pick the ball cleanly off the top of the grass.

Watching the clubhead go back as you start your swing will probably ruin any chance you have of hitting a good shot. Anything you do wrong taking the clubhead back is not as bad as watching it. It is amazing how many golfers get into this habit.

—HARVEY PENICK

KEEP IT LOW

In the takeaway, keep the club low, finishing the backswing at the three-quarter position. Then swing down the target line. The ball should fly high unless you catch some grass between the clubface and the ball, in which case it will behave like a flyer, that is, it will come out hot and roll more after landing.

Note: You can practice this shot by hitting balls teed from one-quarter to one-half inch. Observe the ball flight and catalog the distances you hit various irons with the sweeping swing. This will help you plan.

FLUFFY LIE NEAR GREEN

When you encounter a fluffy lie in the rough near the green, from 15 to 30 yards, you have more than one option. You can fly the ball to the pin and stop it or you can hit it low and run the ball to the pin. Here’s how to hit each shot.

FLY IT

1. Position ball forward of the center of your stance and set hands slightly behind the ball.

2. Open stance and clubface.

3. Make a long swing without releasing the clubface.

4. After impact and during finish, keep left arm in chicken-wing position to promote holding off release of club.

RUN IT

1. Position ball in middle of stance and press hands forward to middle of front leg.

2. Square or slightly close clubface (to promote running after landing on green).

3. Make a short backswing and intercept ball along a shallow approach path.

4. Keep hands low on abbreviated follow through.

DRILL

Here is a simple drill to help you ingrain an important technique for hitting these greenside pitches from a fluffy lie: keeping your left wrist flat. Place a six-inch plastic ruler, a tongue depressor, or any flat stick under the back of the glove or under your watch band on your left hand. Position the stick or ruler so that it runs along the back of the hand up to the first set of knuckles. Practice swinging. This not only teaches you to keep the left wrist flat but also prevents the right hand from releasing prematurely and the clubhead from rolling over.

SHOT BRIEFS

FLUFFY ROUGH

Common Mistakes

Grounding the club at address, causing the ball to move from its original position (thus incurring a one-stroke penalty and the return of ball to original position)

Making a descending approach to the ball

Stance and Setup

Stand taller, grip down on club

Play ball slightly forward of middle for longer irons and woods and in the middle for short irons

Widen stance slightly

Pre-swing Thoughts

Think tempo and solid contact

Watch for possible flyer if there is a chance for grass to get between clubface and ball

Swing

Low takeaway

Take three-quarter backswing

Sweep ball away, keeping approach shallower than normal

–No.–

3

Flyer

Grass (in the rough) growing toward the target offers less resistance, but the ball will tend to fly because grass between the ball and the clubface at impact diminishes backspin. Thus, you should take less club than normal and allow for plenty of run.

—JACK NICKLAUS

THE KEY TO CORRECTLY APPROACHING A FLYER LIE SHOT is to focus on the word flyer. With this lie, the ball is going to literally fly off the club, going much farther than usual. The obvious remedy? Take less club.

RECOGNITION IS THE KEY

The single most important factor in hitting this shot successfully is recognition: you must be able to detect a flyer lie. A flyer lie is any lie where the grass is certain to get between the club and the ball at impact. The ball is usually sitting up in the rough, with grass growing in the direction of the target. Flyer lies are most commonly found in the first cut of rough, where grass is high enough to come between the club and the ball but short enough to allow the ball to sit up. (Occasionally, they crop up in the fairway or in deeper rough.)

The number one mistake golfers make here is taking the same club they would for a normal lie. The common outcome is a shot that sails over the intended target or bounces and rolls farther than anticipated.

The second mistake occurs when golfers recognize the lie, but then alter their swings and hit the shot poorly. Commonly they’ll try to ease the throttle in the downswing.

GRIP IT AND RIP IT

A flyer lie causes problems when hitting approach shots that require touch. But if there is enough distance between your ball and the pin to hit a fairway wood, by all means hit it. Fairway woods tend to be less affected by flyer lies because the club more easily slides through the grass. Even if the grass does catch the club slightly, the ball will jump off the clubhead and roll significantly. Your normal 210-yard, five-wood shots may travel 225 yards.

You can tell a ball is a flyer because it’s usually sitting up a little bit with some grass behind the ball. If the ball is sitting down, it’s not going to fly as much, even if there is some grass behind it. If the grass is leaning toward your target, then the ball is really going to jump out of there. I take less club and I try to deaden the club through impact.

—STEVE STRICKER

WHY DOES IT FLY?

The reason the ball travels a greater distance is because the blades of grass get trapped between the clubface and the ball. The grass creates a launching pad. There is just enough grass to get between the clubface and the ball, but not enough to create significant resistance to the club coming into the ball. This eliminates the spin and the ball knuckles or tumbles or otherwise erratically flies through the air. The lack of spin also makes it difficult to work the ball (fade or draw) or stop the ball on the green.

You can expect a five-iron shot to carry and roll at least 10 yards farther when hitting from a flyer lie. This means you should take one club less in this situation—a six-iron. Say, for example, you’ve got 170 yards to the pin and you would normally hit a six-iron. Pull out the seven-iron and take your normal swing. The ball may touch down a little short of your desired landing area, but your roll should make up for that.

PLAYING THE FLYER LIE 100 YARDS IN

Playing a flyer lie from within 100 yards to the pin is extra tricky. Backspin is one of the keys to hitting perfect green shots. Without it, your ball will hit the green with no braking action, that is, backspin, and roll off the green. Because the ball flies with less backspin it goes farther and releases forward when it hits the green. Each of these factors makes it tough to control or predict the distance. Here is what I would do:

First, I’d check out the 100 yards between my ball and the pin. If I have a clear path to the green that would enable me to hit a bump and run shot, I’d travel that path. To do so, I’d open my stance slightly and lean forward with the ball positioned in the center of my sternum. Then I’d choke down on the club for control, take a three-quarter backswing and finish low on my left side.

If I had a small amount of green to work with I’d choose another option: a soft fade or cut