Hitting Golf Fairway Woods From A Tight Lie (Video) - Lesson by PGA Pro Pete Styles
Hitting Golf Fairway Woods From A Tight Lie (Video) - Lesson by PGA Pro Pete Styles

So if you find yourself in a position where you're a long, long way back from the green, you want to try and get as much distance as possible. One of the key things you are going to look for is a really nice lie. But if you don't have that luxury, and you've got the ball sitting down on some hardpan, maybe a bit of a pathway, or some dormant grass where there's no real set of sponge or spring underneath the ball. So it's going to be a very difficult shot. We've got to cover as much distance as possible, but we don't have a very good lie.

One of the options you might choose from that position is going to be a fairway wood. And the benefits of using a fairway wood is a lot of the weight is low and deep within the head and if we can get any of that weight underneath the ball, it will get the ball to go up into the air. It might not go souring super high into the air like you would want, but at least it will get it up in the air and producing it down the fairway a little bit. So it's going to roll the distance as well. So if you got a three wood or a five wood, you should be able to get a fairway wood off the hardpan lie, as long as we focus on a couple of key changes in our setup. Normally, we play fairway wood from quite well full within our stance, maybe we'll play it up against the left and step a bit more like a longer wood or even a driver. But actually in this situation, I'm going to encourage you to bring it back a little bit. So you play the fairway wood more like a sixth sign in the stance. And then have the hands very slightly ahead, that's on a normal fairway wood position but we're going to position the hands ahead so we can make a good down blow on the golf ball, hitting down ball first, rather than trying to get underneath and scoop the turf first. And again, that could be a phycological thing that a golfer sees the ball down on the ground and tries to help it up into the air and leans back. That's not good at all. So, get on to that left side, make a good down strike. If I kind of have a – this you'll probably see the ball flight will come out quite low and shooting forward. So I've got the ball backing my stance, I've got my hands nicely ahead. I've got my body weight on my left side. And I can hit down on the ball there and it comes out quite low. It doesn't really tower up into the sky. It's a very low penetrating ball flight. But if you've got the ball on the hardpan and you've chosen your fairway wood, that might be the only chance you've got to getting that ball projecting forwards, is by having the ball back a bit more, the hands forwards a bit more, and get ahead and strike nice and firmly down on the back of the golf ball. 2016-05-11

So if you find yourself in a position where you're a long, long way back from the green, you want to try and get as much distance as possible. One of the key things you are going to look for is a really nice lie. But if you don't have that luxury, and you've got the ball sitting down on some hardpan, maybe a bit of a pathway, or some dormant grass where there's no real set of sponge or spring underneath the ball. So it's going to be a very difficult shot. We've got to cover as much distance as possible, but we don't have a very good lie.

One of the options you might choose from that position is going to be a fairway wood. And the benefits of using a fairway wood is a lot of the weight is low and deep within the head and if we can get any of that weight underneath the ball, it will get the ball to go up into the air. It might not go souring super high into the air like you would want, but at least it will get it up in the air and producing it down the fairway a little bit. So it's going to roll the distance as well.

So if you got a three wood or a five wood, you should be able to get a fairway wood off the hardpan lie, as long as we focus on a couple of key changes in our setup. Normally, we play fairway wood from quite well full within our stance, maybe we'll play it up against the left and step a bit more like a longer wood or even a driver.

But actually in this situation, I'm going to encourage you to bring it back a little bit. So you play the fairway wood more like a sixth sign in the stance. And then have the hands very slightly ahead, that's on a normal fairway wood position but we're going to position the hands ahead so we can make a good down blow on the golf ball, hitting down ball first, rather than trying to get underneath and scoop the turf first. And again, that could be a phycological thing that a golfer sees the ball down on the ground and tries to help it up into the air and leans back. That's not good at all. So, get on to that left side, make a good down strike.

If I kind of have a – this you'll probably see the ball flight will come out quite low and shooting forward. So I've got the ball backing my stance, I've got my hands nicely ahead. I've got my body weight on my left side. And I can hit down on the ball there and it comes out quite low. It doesn't really tower up into the sky. It's a very low penetrating ball flight. But if you've got the ball on the hardpan and you've chosen your fairway wood, that might be the only chance you've got to getting that ball projecting forwards, is by having the ball back a bit more, the hands forwards a bit more, and get ahead and strike nice and firmly down on the back of the golf ball.