Bad Lie Golf, How Can I Play The Ball When It Is Up Against A Tree (Video) - by Peter Finch
Bad Lie Golf, How Can I Play The Ball When It Is Up Against A Tree (Video) - by Peter Finch

How can I play my golf ball when it’s up against a tree? If you are unfortunate enough to actually hit a shot on the course and find yourself up against the tree, your first thing you need to be thinking about, is how you can get the ball back into safety and not how you can get the ball to the green, because in some cases that tree will be in a position where you physically cannot swing.

Now I have here a basket to demonstrate different positions where your ball might finish. So my target is down here in this direction. So I got my tree here going up in this direction and my ball has been lucky enough to finish right next to it in this point. So obviously you’re limited you can’t swing backwards, the only position is you can actually go, are to the side this way or back handed in this direction here. I can’t go towards my target so I need to realize that I’m very limited in the shots that I can play. If your tree is to this size, so you can well just see the ball through the basket there. You’ve obviously got a little more of a clear run to the actual kind of target. So you need to make sure that the club moves on an inside path, it doesn’t move on the outside, and you don’t hit the tree. If the tree moves around, and it now sits in front of my ball, obviously, I’ve got different options again. I can either go out sideways this way or sideways this way, depending on where the actual fairway is, but the most difficult shot for a right hander is if I’m hitting in this direction and the tree sis here. So the only real directions; I can go backwards, or I can play out back handed in this direction. Now the most obvious kind of want to you need to learn and which you might not be very familiar with, is the back handed shot. Now for a back handed shot, all you really need to be doing is gripping quite far down the club using a relatively lofted iron, getting set up with the ball, in front of the feet so quite further away from the target than your heels. And what this will allow you to do is actually strike down on the ball quite strongly, and this is why you need a lofted club, because you need for pop up in the air. If you use the low lofted iron for the shot, you just drill it straight down into the ground. So I have my tree in this direction here I need it to down backwards. So I’m going to put my weight even on each foot with the ball back in my stance, I’m going to pick it up quite steeply and then hit down onto the ball. And if you get a decent kind of connection the ball should go, a decent distance, but if you do find your ball up against the tree use good course management, don’t always go for the green, actually figure out what’s going to be the safest option and stick to the plan. Good luck with that bad lie golf shot. 2014-10-20

How can I play my golf ball when it’s up against a tree? If you are unfortunate enough to actually hit a shot on the course and find yourself up against the tree, your first thing you need to be thinking about, is how you can get the ball back into safety and not how you can get the ball to the green, because in some cases that tree will be in a position where you physically cannot swing.

Now I have here a basket to demonstrate different positions where your ball might finish. So my target is down here in this direction. So I got my tree here going up in this direction and my ball has been lucky enough to finish right next to it in this point. So obviously you’re limited you can’t swing backwards, the only position is you can actually go, are to the side this way or back handed in this direction here.

I can’t go towards my target so I need to realize that I’m very limited in the shots that I can play. If your tree is to this size, so you can well just see the ball through the basket there. You’ve obviously got a little more of a clear run to the actual kind of target. So you need to make sure that the club moves on an inside path, it doesn’t move on the outside, and you don’t hit the tree. If the tree moves around, and it now sits in front of my ball, obviously, I’ve got different options again. I can either go out sideways this way or sideways this way, depending on where the actual fairway is, but the most difficult shot for a right hander is if I’m hitting in this direction and the tree sis here. So the only real directions; I can go backwards, or I can play out back handed in this direction.

Now the most obvious kind of want to you need to learn and which you might not be very familiar with, is the back handed shot. Now for a back handed shot, all you really need to be doing is gripping quite far down the club using a relatively lofted iron, getting set up with the ball, in front of the feet so quite further away from the target than your heels.

And what this will allow you to do is actually strike down on the ball quite strongly, and this is why you need a lofted club, because you need for pop up in the air. If you use the low lofted iron for the shot, you just drill it straight down into the ground. So I have my tree in this direction here I need it to down backwards. So I’m going to put my weight even on each foot with the ball back in my stance, I’m going to pick it up quite steeply and then hit down onto the ball.

And if you get a decent kind of connection the ball should go, a decent distance, but if you do find your ball up against the tree use good course management, don’t always go for the green, actually figure out what’s going to be the safest option and stick to the plan. Good luck with that bad lie golf shot.