How do you get out of the rough? (Video) - by Pete Styles
How do you get out of the rough? (Video) - by Pete Styles

We’ve all been there haven’t we, we’ve all driven the ball into the rough. You walk down there, you’re lucky to find it. You are look at it and you think, “Oh that’s horrible, I’m not going to be able to get that ball out very easily.” But a good golfer will approach with a slightly different sort of sense of a challenge. A sense of, “If I can get that ball out, I can get it on the green, I might be able to hold the putt save my par or at worse make bogie.” And then we would use a different technique to play this ball out.

It’s not just going to be looking out there and saying, “Well, it’s 170 therefore I need my six sign and attack it out the rough for the six sign, that’s probably not going to work.” A good player is going to look at his ball in the rough and think well, if I use a lofted club that will cut through the grass a little bit more. If I take my lofty club then I grip down and grip quite firmly, that will give more control of the club head and more control that when I hit the long grass, the club’s not going to twist or slow down too much. The one last focal point from a good player in the rough is that they’re going to accelerate. They are not going to hit the club and stop. They’re going to hit into the ground, they’re going to tear the grass up by its roots, they’re going to throw the grass down the fairway, and the ball is going to come out in the middle of that grass and fire out there as far as possible. So it’s grip down, use a nice lofted club, hit it hard, and make sure you accelerate. So we’re going to have a relatively short back swing, with a real big dig and big follow through. So my follow through is right away around to a full finish. I’ve been able to blast the ball out of that lie and get it down there as far as possible. If you have an almighty back swing and then a stop as you’re trying to scoop and flick the ball out that long grass, that’s the thing that will kill you. That’s the thing that won’t work. So if you want to be better out the rough, lofted club, grip down, hit down, and make sure you follow through. 2015-03-27

We’ve all been there haven’t we, we’ve all driven the ball into the rough. You walk down there, you’re lucky to find it. You are look at it and you think, “Oh that’s horrible, I’m not going to be able to get that ball out very easily.” But a good golfer will approach with a slightly different sort of sense of a challenge. A sense of, “If I can get that ball out, I can get it on the green, I might be able to hold the putt save my par or at worse make bogie.” And then we would use a different technique to play this ball out.

It’s not just going to be looking out there and saying, “Well, it’s 170 therefore I need my six sign and attack it out the rough for the six sign, that’s probably not going to work.” A good player is going to look at his ball in the rough and think well, if I use a lofted club that will cut through the grass a little bit more. If I take my lofty club then I grip down and grip quite firmly, that will give more control of the club head and more control that when I hit the long grass, the club’s not going to twist or slow down too much.

The one last focal point from a good player in the rough is that they’re going to accelerate. They are not going to hit the club and stop. They’re going to hit into the ground, they’re going to tear the grass up by its roots, they’re going to throw the grass down the fairway, and the ball is going to come out in the middle of that grass and fire out there as far as possible. So it’s grip down, use a nice lofted club, hit it hard, and make sure you accelerate.

So we’re going to have a relatively short back swing, with a real big dig and big follow through. So my follow through is right away around to a full finish. I’ve been able to blast the ball out of that lie and get it down there as far as possible. If you have an almighty back swing and then a stop as you’re trying to scoop and flick the ball out that long grass, that’s the thing that will kill you. That’s the thing that won’t work. So if you want to be better out the rough, lofted club, grip down, hit down, and make sure you follow through.