Learning how to play and get good results from greenside rough will really help you to lower your scores. Not really knowing what to do when faced with this situation can lead you to make avoidable mistakes and cost you valuable shots.

Initially, evaluate your lie. Is the ball sitting up on the rough or is it nestled down? If the ball is sitting up on top of the grass, hover the club to avoid grounding the club head too close to the ball which will then result in the ball moving and incurring you a penalty! Keep yourself tall when playing this shot, you do not want to allow the club head to slide under the ball through the grass and not move the ball. To ensure this does not happen, hold lower down on the handle to shorten the club length and get the club head up from the ground where the ball is. You want to make a sweeping action to hit this shot well, so keep your weight even and play the ball from the middle of your stance. Set up with your hands ahead of the ball, or to the left of the ball at set up and through impact and to encourage a sweeping action, work on keeping the club head away on a flatter swing plane to encourage a shallow angle of attack, or lower club head approach back toward the ball as this will encourage you to clip the ball off the top of the grass.

If the ball is nestled down you need a different approach. Here you need to create a steep angle of attack and be hitting downwards towards the bottom of the ball. Open your club face by rotating the handle of the club to the right and then place your hands on. The club face will now be aiming to the right so rotate your stance to the left until the club face is aiming at your target. You want to work on picking the club head up steeply and dropping it down into the back of the ball, with minimum contact with the grass. You are looking to get the ball out of the grass so that it lands softly on the green, so use your sand iron for this shot. Take a practice swing to get a feel for the resistance in the grass so you know the force to play the shot with and work on holding the club off during the follow through, keep the club head lower than your hands.

So the next time you are faced with a shot from the greenside rough, work on these points and you will see a big improvement in your accuracy.