Adjusting for the Rough

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Welcome back, golfers.

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In this next video, we're going to talk about assessing the rough.

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So basically, how are we going to adjust our stock shot for rough shots around

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the green?

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You really have to read the lie, and you have to read the slope.

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In this video, we're going to talk about reading the lie.

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So in general, when we're trying to figure out what the lie is going to do, we

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're trying

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to figure out how much the grass is going to stop the club, or how much

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resistance it's

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going to apply.

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In general, the more resistance, the more I'm going to have to add some speed.

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And then we're trying to figure out how much it's going to influence spin.

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So in general, the more resistance, the less the ball's going to spin, and I'm

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going to

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have to use height to stop the ball.

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So when I'm assessing my lie, I teach five criteria to assess.

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I want to look at the thickness of the grass.

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I want to look at the length of the grass, the direction that the grass is

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growing, the

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location my ball is in in the grass.

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So is it sitting on top of the grass in the middle or all the way at the bottom

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on the

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dirt?

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And then lastly, is there anything behind the golf ball?

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Any clump of grass that I'm going to have to swing through.

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In general, the more the thickness, the longer, the more the ball's sitting

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down, the more I'm

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going to have to add speed to get through the rough and then the less spin that

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I'm going

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to get.

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So typically, I'm going to adjust my stroke in a couple of different ways.

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So in general, the thicker the grass, the more that I'm going to add speed, I'm

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going

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to try to get steeper.

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And then I'm going to rely on height to stop the ball, so I'm going to open the

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club face.

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Typically the ways that we're going to get steeper are either going to be

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leaning a little

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bit more left, possibly choking up on the club, swinging with the shoulders

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getting a little

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bit more steep in the backswing, swinging with the club more up either with

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wrist set

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or with arm motion, staying on that front foot.

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All those things will help steep in the club.

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And then I have to err on getting the club face a little bit more open out of

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the rough,

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but I can either play the ball forward if I want to have the ball pop up and

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use more

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height, or I can play the ball backward if I want more of a medium trajectory

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and I'm

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just going to rely on kind of the length of the shot to stop the ball.

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So we'll talk through some scenarios in the rest of the video when we go

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outside and look

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at some specific lies.

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But in general, this is how we're going to assess each lie before we hit the

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shots around

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the green, out of the rough.

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Okay, so now let's work through the examples out here in the field.

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So we'll work through the two extremes.

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Now in general, when you're practicing out of the rough, one common trend that

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I see

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is for most shots, I want you to take practice swings where you get the club

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all the way

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down to the ground or down to the dirt.

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One of the most common things I see with newer golfers is out of the rough.

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They take practice swings where the club is just skimming the top of the grass.

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That can work when the ball's sitting completely on top, but for most of the

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shots, that's

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going to result in a chunk or a bladed shot.

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Okay, so let's first go through the two extremes.

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First one is ball sitting up.

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This rough, here we are in the morning, so the rough is a little wet so it's

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even thicker.

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I've got ball sitting up and I'm trying to get very little behind it.

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When the ball's sitting up, it's kind of on a tee, there's very little behind

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it.

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I can be more sweepy.

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I can actually do more of kind of almost like a putting stroke where the club

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is very low

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to the ground and kind of wide for a long period of time now.

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So this particular shot, what you'll see is if I'm having this kind of long

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smooth flat

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stroke, I'll tend to get a fair amount of roll, so unfortunately, for this

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close pin,

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I would have to open the club face just a little bit.

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Now, when the ball's sitting up and you have to open the club face, you want to

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be really

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careful that you don't open it up so much so that there's no hitting surface.

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You'll see the club has a certain amount of height, and as it opens, that

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height gets

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narrow and narrower, so if the ball is sitting up a lot, that's when it's very

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easy to go

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underneath the golf ball and just leave it there.

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You do have to risk it a little bit if you need to have some height, but you

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can offset

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that by having a little bit more shaft lean.

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So here we've got ball sitting up, again, we can do a little bit more of a

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sweeping action.

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Lain of that, just a touch short, but overall, pretty happy with the shot.

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When we're assessing the lie and we're looking at the thickness, the thicker

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the grass, the

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more, and that includes the thickness of the grass, how wet it is, how dense it

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is.

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The thicker it is, I think you should be a little bit more tolerant on yourself

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.

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You're going to tend to have more, like, there's a bigger difference between

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catching a little

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bit behind it and catching it perfectly, compared to if the grass was a little

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bit thinner or

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wispy.

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Okay, so that was ball sitting on top.

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Common place where you face that is in between the green and a bunker, where

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oftentimes the

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slope rolls down into the bunker, if the ball stops on the edge there, you'll

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typically

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have nothing behind the ball and you can easily do that kind of more shallow,

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just kind of

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brushing chip shot.

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Okay, so the other extreme is if the ball is sitting down all the way down on

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the dirt,

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just like this, where the ball is actually below the height of the grass.

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Now I have to get steeper in order to get into the golf ball, because if I was

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to do

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more of this sweeping stroke, you can see, if I did that, the club contacts the

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ground

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actually behind my right foot, and that's just a lot of grass to have to go

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through, it's

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going to slow it down and get in between the club facing the ball, it's not

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going to come

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out very well.

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So, I'm going to add more steepening elements.

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The steepening elements are going to be maybe a little bit more wrist set,

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maybe a little

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bit more weight on my front foot, maybe choking up, maybe a little bit more arm

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lift.

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Those are your big options, and then I'm going to be feeling like I'm swinging

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a little bit

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more down into the golf ball, but especially out of the thick rough or when the

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ball is

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sitting down, I want you to feel and make sure that you keep the club moving on

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the

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way through, and I want you to feel like you just kind of hit and stop.

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So, the two options are ball position more back, or ball position more forward.

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You're going to have the club face open regardless, so it really comes down to

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how we want the

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ball to react when it hits the ground.

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So, if I have, like this wouldn't be the right shot for this particular hole,

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but I'll see

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if I can pull it off.

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So, if I have the ball position back and my hands forward, and then I get steep

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, you'll

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see I get pretty clean contact, but the ball is going to have a lot of run, or

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a lot of

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roll to it.

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So, I would have to swing really soft in order to land this just before the

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green to have

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it roll the right amount, and if I swing really soft, it's not going to get

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through

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the thick rough very easily, so this probably wouldn't be the right shot here.

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So, then the other option is I have the club face still open, but instead of

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ball back

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hands forward, I'm going to have ball forward hands more neutral or hands

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forward, but closer

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to even with the golf ball.

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So, now the ball is hopefully going to pop up more as instead of coming out low

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and kind

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of driving.

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So, ball forward, still adding, adding some steepeners, came out a little bit

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faster

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than I thought it would, so that did end up closer than the shot that I just

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hit, where

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I hit the first shot better, so I hit technically a more clean, good shot, but

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the second one

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because I chose the right shot, I had more margin for error, I didn't hit it as

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good,

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and it actually ended up closer.

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Okay, so then the other option is, or the last option is when the ball is kind

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of sitting

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in the middle.

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This is where I think you can use the height of the ball to your advantage, and

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when the

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ball, you know, we talked about when the ball is sitting up, it's easy to go

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under.

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When the ball has a little bit of cushion, then it's really hard to go too far

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under

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it, so I can air on hitting a little bit more behind it, and the key there is

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just to keep

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the club moving.

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So, in some ways, on your standard rough shot, the easiest shot is going to be

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when the

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ball is sitting in the middle, not when it's all the way on the bottom, and not

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when it's

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all the way on the top, unless you have a lot of room to work with, then

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sitting on

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the top is pretty good, but the one that fits the wedge the best is when the

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ball is sitting

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in the middle.

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So, I highly recommend when you're practicing your wedge play, get your stroke

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dialed in,

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and then when you go to hit out of the rough, experiment with ball sitting up,

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ball sitting

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in the middle, ball sitting back, grass growing into me, grass growing away

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from me, clumps

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behind the ball, no clumps behind the ball, and you'll start to build a little

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bit more

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of a feel of how much energy you have to put into the club to get through

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specific rough,

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and that'll help you tremendously when you're trying to troubleshoot individual

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shots on

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the course.

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So, ball sitting in the middle, keep it moving, comes out nice, just like that.

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