Ball on Cart Path: Playing It Could Be Best Option - Golf (Video) - by Pete Styles
Ball on Cart Path: Playing It Could Be Best Option - Golf (Video) - by Pete Styles

So here’s another one of those awkward trouble situations where you might not always take the first or most obvious options to get out of it. If your golf ball has landed on a cart path it’s quite natural to assume I will just pick it up give himself a free drop and carry on, but what if your free drop options don’t really float your boats, what if the free drop option you kind of feel well that’s a bit unfair, I have been forced to drop in long grass on uneven lie or behind a tree where I can’t see my target. There is an option where you can play the ball from the cart path legally you are allowed to do that and you will often see on the TV with a professional golfer sometimes they choose to do that, because actually in real terms the lie is quite good, the ball is sitting nice and flat on the surface and there is nothing going to get in the way of the club as it attacks the golf ball. Obviously the difference between the professionals and the amateurs is you have just played $500 or $600 for a set of golf clubs and one of them is going to wind up with a dirty grey big scuff mark right across the bottom. Professionals don’t worry about that they will just get a new one when they get back to the club house, but for most club golfers that’s a massive factor.

Now if you are going to hit the shot off the cart path you must commit to it, there is no point to the last minute getting scared if your golf club isn't pulling in, because you will top the golf ball and that costs you a shot and actually the free drop would have been the better option, but if it’s decided that I have got a good shot from this cart path I am not going to do too much damage to my clubs and actually it’s worthwhile playing because the free drop options at the side of the cart part aren’t really any good, the way you would play this is nicely from the centre of your stance, plenty of loft to get the ball up in the air and over any hazards that you need, enough club to get it to the green and then a nice committed hit down into the cart path into the asphalt to get underneath the golf ball. You can actually practice these maybe just generally at the driving range not the ball away from the soft mat and play it right off the hard surface. And as long as you get good just delivering the club into the ball at the right level, you should be able to take the ball cleanly without actually banging it down into the floor quite too hard. So if I play this in even though my feet aren’t level I am going to make that adjustment and just play clean off the surface. And I can knock that ball away the same distance as a normal and full 6 sign that I have got because actually the ball is lying down here quite nicely. So don’t worry about trying to get underneath the ball and dig it out you can just hit down ball and then asphalt and you should be able to get the ball off the cart path quite nicely. Then have a quick check, my club still in one piece, I am doing okay.

 2012-07-16

So here’s another one of those awkward trouble situations where you might not always take the first or most obvious options to get out of it. If your golf ball has landed on a cart path it’s quite natural to assume I will just pick it up give himself a free drop and carry on, but what if your free drop options don’t really float your boats, what if the free drop option you kind of feel well that’s a bit unfair, I have been forced to drop in long grass on uneven lie or behind a tree where I can’t see my target. There is an option where you can play the ball from the cart path legally you are allowed to do that and you will often see on the TV with a professional golfer sometimes they choose to do that, because actually in real terms the lie is quite good, the ball is sitting nice and flat on the surface and there is nothing going to get in the way of the club as it attacks the golf ball. Obviously the difference between the professionals and the amateurs is you have just played $500 or $600 for a set of golf clubs and one of them is going to wind up with a dirty grey big scuff mark right across the bottom. Professionals don’t worry about that they will just get a new one when they get back to the club house, but for most club golfers that’s a massive factor.

Now if you are going to hit the shot off the cart path you must commit to it, there is no point to the last minute getting scared if your golf club isn't pulling in, because you will top the golf ball and that costs you a shot and actually the free drop would have been the better option, but if it’s decided that I have got a good shot from this cart path I am not going to do too much damage to my clubs and actually it’s worthwhile playing because the free drop options at the side of the cart part aren’t really any good, the way you would play this is nicely from the centre of your stance, plenty of loft to get the ball up in the air and over any hazards that you need, enough club to get it to the green and then a nice committed hit down into the cart path into the asphalt to get underneath the golf ball. You can actually practice these maybe just generally at the driving range not the ball away from the soft mat and play it right off the hard surface. And as long as you get good just delivering the club into the ball at the right level, you should be able to take the ball cleanly without actually banging it down into the floor quite too hard. So if I play this in even though my feet aren’t level I am going to make that adjustment and just play clean off the surface. And I can knock that ball away the same distance as a normal and full 6 sign that I have got because actually the ball is lying down here quite nicely. So don’t worry about trying to get underneath the ball and dig it out you can just hit down ball and then asphalt and you should be able to get the ball off the cart path quite nicely. Then have a quick check, my club still in one piece, I am doing okay.