As anyone who's played golf knows, it's inevitable that at
some point during a round you're going to find yourself in the rough. And while
the rough certainly presents challenges that don't exist when playing from the
fairway; playing from the rough doesn't have to ruin your round. Below are a
few points regarding playing from the rough that will help you keep your round
on track.
The first key to playing effectively from the rough is
accurately assessing the lie of your ball: how deep or buried is your ball? The
club you hit and what type of shot you play are dictated by this because the
rough creates resistance as the club enters the grass, causing the club to slow
down or decelerate before impact. The heavier the rough, the more rapidly the
club slows down. Obviously, the club head slowing down results in a loss of
distance. So, judging how much grass is going to interfere with the club head
before impact is critical.
If your ball is sitting where some portion of the ball is
above the tallest blades of grass (Image 1 above), the loss of club head speed
will be minimal and therefore so will be the loss of distance. In this
circumstance, take one more club than you'd normally hit from that yardage and
let er' rip. High lofted fairway woods and hybrids can be especially effective
in this circumstance.
For a lie where the top of the ball is even with the top of
the grass (Image 2 above), you're also going to take an extra club than you
normally would for the given distance, but now you also need to alter your
technique slightly. In this situation you want to make your swing plane steeper
or more upright so you approach the ball with a more vertical angle.
