Steepen Your Swing to Escape Deep Rough, Golf (Video) - by Pete Styles
Steepen Your Swing to Escape Deep Rough, Golf (Video) - by Pete Styles

So now, let us look at the issues that relate to a ball that has been hit into some long grass and deep rough if you like. We have got to try and get this ball out of the deep rough and try and get as much distance on the shot as possible. The first thing I want you to consider here is club selection. When you’re in the deep grass, the ball probably won’t come out as cleanly as normal.

So, we might need to think about hitting a longer club to get more distance on the shot, but be very careful with that because if you don’t use a club with enough loft, when the club comes into the ball, not enough loft is going to hit into the side of the long grass. So, it is not going to get the ball up and moving it forwards at all. So, you have to take a bit of a balanced approach here. We want plenty of loft that will cut through the ground quite nicely, cut through the grass and get the ball up but also enough loft that we can reach the green.

Now, for this particular shot, I’m pretending that I'm 100 yards away from the green. The ball is in some long grass, so I’ve taken a pitching wedge. I'm going to hit down on the ball nice and hard. I think a pitch wedge gives me just enough balance between enough distance to get to the green but also enough loft to get the ball out of the bad line. In terms of changing my technique to hit the shot, I'm going to play the ball a little bit further back in my stance. I'm going to get nice and close to the golf ball as well.

Those two areas will increase the steepness of my golf swing. My club will now lift off a lot higher, a lot quicker. I'm also going to utilize quite a lot of wrist hinge on the way back. The reason why we need to keep a straight or steep back swing up is so we can have a nice steep downswing back down. Dropping the club steeper into the back of the ball here reduces the amount of effect the long grass will have. If we got a ball here and some long grass in this area and the club comes in too shallow and scoops the ball, I'm going to go into a lot of long grass stop between the club and the golf ball through this phase as I would scoop the ball into the air. That is not going to work for me.

So, we play the ball back, play the hands nice and steep up into the air, leaning on the left side and chopping down on the golf ball. The more you can chop down on this ball, the cleaner the contact will be, the further the ball will jump when it comes out. So, if I show you how I play this back in the stance, down on the grip, lean on the left side, nice and steep and a good solid hit down into the back of the golf ball will gouge down. Don’t be afraid of taking a nice of bit of divot here to try and cut out the long grass that was in front of the golf ball. Hopefully, that will get the ball out and going forward.

One of the things I would just consider is your alignment. Sometimes, the long grass through this area would grab hold of the golf club and actually shot the face slightly, particularly if it is a long wispy grass. So, if you’re a right-handed golfer, it might be advisable just to aim your body slightly more to the right-hand side of the fairway or the green knowing that the clubface attacks the ball would probably just get shot down slightly. For the left-handers, and I'm a left hand side knowing the ball would go to the right-hand side.

One last thing would just be to increase your grip pressure slightly so that as you do hit down hard into the ground, the club hangs on and it doesn’t twist too much because you got nice strong grip pressure to stop that clubface from being ripped into a closed position. Hopefully, that will help you the next time you get the ball out to the long grass.

 2012-05-09

So now, let us look at the issues that relate to a ball that has been hit into some long grass and deep rough if you like. We have got to try and get this ball out of the deep rough and try and get as much distance on the shot as possible. The first thing I want you to consider here is club selection. When you’re in the deep grass, the ball probably won’t come out as cleanly as normal.

So, we might need to think about hitting a longer club to get more distance on the shot, but be very careful with that because if you don’t use a club with enough loft, when the club comes into the ball, not enough loft is going to hit into the side of the long grass. So, it is not going to get the ball up and moving it forwards at all. So, you have to take a bit of a balanced approach here. We want plenty of loft that will cut through the ground quite nicely, cut through the grass and get the ball up but also enough loft that we can reach the green.

Now, for this particular shot, I’m pretending that I'm 100 yards away from the green. The ball is in some long grass, so I’ve taken a pitching wedge. I'm going to hit down on the ball nice and hard. I think a pitch wedge gives me just enough balance between enough distance to get to the green but also enough loft to get the ball out of the bad line. In terms of changing my technique to hit the shot, I'm going to play the ball a little bit further back in my stance. I'm going to get nice and close to the golf ball as well.

Those two areas will increase the steepness of my golf swing. My club will now lift off a lot higher, a lot quicker. I'm also going to utilize quite a lot of wrist hinge on the way back. The reason why we need to keep a straight or steep back swing up is so we can have a nice steep downswing back down. Dropping the club steeper into the back of the ball here reduces the amount of effect the long grass will have. If we got a ball here and some long grass in this area and the club comes in too shallow and scoops the ball, I'm going to go into a lot of long grass stop between the club and the golf ball through this phase as I would scoop the ball into the air. That is not going to work for me.

So, we play the ball back, play the hands nice and steep up into the air, leaning on the left side and chopping down on the golf ball. The more you can chop down on this ball, the cleaner the contact will be, the further the ball will jump when it comes out. So, if I show you how I play this back in the stance, down on the grip, lean on the left side, nice and steep and a good solid hit down into the back of the golf ball will gouge down. Don’t be afraid of taking a nice of bit of divot here to try and cut out the long grass that was in front of the golf ball. Hopefully, that will get the ball out and going forward.

One of the things I would just consider is your alignment. Sometimes, the long grass through this area would grab hold of the golf club and actually shot the face slightly, particularly if it is a long wispy grass. So, if you’re a right-handed golfer, it might be advisable just to aim your body slightly more to the right-hand side of the fairway or the green knowing that the clubface attacks the ball would probably just get shot down slightly. For the left-handers, and I'm a left hand side knowing the ball would go to the right-hand side.

One last thing would just be to increase your grip pressure slightly so that as you do hit down hard into the ground, the club hangs on and it doesn’t twist too much because you got nice strong grip pressure to stop that clubface from being ripped into a closed position. Hopefully, that will help you the next time you get the ball out to the long grass.