How Should I Chip From The Green side Rough? (Video) - by Dean Butler
How Should I Chip From The Green side Rough? (Video) - by Dean Butler

So how do I chip from the green side rough? It’s quite an easy shot if you have normal sort of conditions on the Fairway but let’s just say you are in the rough. So let’s rather think about, we just kind of think about how can we assess the sit – we need to assess the situation, we need to adjust maybe the club selection and we need to concentrate on attack. So the first thing is let’s look at the lie, what’s the lie that we’ve got. If you’re lucky the ball might be sat up in which case you can play a normal sort of chip golf shot but unfortunately we don’t get many good lies in the rough so it normally sits down.

If the ball is sat down the first thing we need to do is maybe consider taking a little bit more lofted golf club. If the ball is sat down it’s no good playing say a conventional 7 iron because the ball is sat down so play a little bit more loft maybe a 9 iron maybe a pitch. If the ball is sat down, we need to concentrate in putting the ball back in the stance slightly because if you ball in the normal position, the problem with that would be is that the club would travel into the grass and it’d be too high up the ball. So we need to get down to the root. So we need to put the ball back at the – ball is sat down the rough, put the ball back in our stance, keep the weight on the left hand side so we’re creating an angle and what this will do is create a contact which is at the bottom of the ball and then the club will actually take that ball up into the air. The club will take the ball up in the air not those physically trying to get it out so first thing is, have a look at that lie. The second thing is we’ve talked about the club selection, we’ve talked about the lie but you’ve got to remember one thing, it’s no good having these things in your mind if you haven’t got this one word which is what I bang the drum about all the time; commitment. Get yourself into that position, go for the routine I’ve just said but make sure you are totally committed. So I think quite often the tour pros have – actually having practice swings which are much harder than the actual swing that they are going to do on the ball. They sit together mentally committed, then when you come to the golf shot set yourself up and there’s less likelihood of you actually swinging that club and doing the classic which is the deceleration. And of course you can just imagine what’s going to happen when that ball is sat down. If the ball is sat up then you can come up with a club, you can come up from the pitcher somewhere to a 9 iron, to an 8 iron, to a 7 iron. So look at what you are faced with, you are chipped around the green you know, sometimes but when the ball is in the rough look in the lie, the lie is the number one factor. Two how far is the pin on the green, have you got lots of green to work with or not. Assess the situation but the whole thing about it when the ball is sat down always, always put that ball back in your stance.
2014-05-15

So how do I chip from the green side rough? It’s quite an easy shot if you have normal sort of conditions on the Fairway but let’s just say you are in the rough. So let’s rather think about, we just kind of think about how can we assess the sit – we need to assess the situation, we need to adjust maybe the club selection and we need to concentrate on attack. So the first thing is let’s look at the lie, what’s the lie that we’ve got. If you’re lucky the ball might be sat up in which case you can play a normal sort of chip golf shot but unfortunately we don’t get many good lies in the rough so it normally sits down.

If the ball is sat down the first thing we need to do is maybe consider taking a little bit more lofted golf club. If the ball is sat down it’s no good playing say a conventional 7 iron because the ball is sat down so play a little bit more loft maybe a 9 iron maybe a pitch. If the ball is sat down, we need to concentrate in putting the ball back in the stance slightly because if you ball in the normal position, the problem with that would be is that the club would travel into the grass and it’d be too high up the ball. So we need to get down to the root. So we need to put the ball back at the – ball is sat down the rough, put the ball back in our stance, keep the weight on the left hand side so we’re creating an angle and what this will do is create a contact which is at the bottom of the ball and then the club will actually take that ball up into the air.

The club will take the ball up in the air not those physically trying to get it out so first thing is, have a look at that lie. The second thing is we’ve talked about the club selection, we’ve talked about the lie but you’ve got to remember one thing, it’s no good having these things in your mind if you haven’t got this one word which is what I bang the drum about all the time; commitment. Get yourself into that position, go for the routine I’ve just said but make sure you are totally committed. So I think quite often the tour pros have – actually having practice swings which are much harder than the actual swing that they are going to do on the ball.

They sit together mentally committed, then when you come to the golf shot set yourself up and there’s less likelihood of you actually swinging that club and doing the classic which is the deceleration. And of course you can just imagine what’s going to happen when that ball is sat down. If the ball is sat up then you can come up with a club, you can come up from the pitcher somewhere to a 9 iron, to an 8 iron, to a 7 iron. So look at what you are faced with, you are chipped around the green you know, sometimes but when the ball is in the rough look in the lie, the lie is the number one factor. Two how far is the pin on the green, have you got lots of green to work with or not. Assess the situation but the whole thing about it when the ball is sat down always, always put that ball back in your stance.