Do you lose strokes trying to recover from deep rough? You’re not alone. Many weekend golfers do—especially when they have a buried lie. Hitting from a buried lie in deep rough is a challenge that can pack strokes onto your scores. These strokes add up. The problem may be in your setup. If you don’t setup to maximize your wedge’s design features, it can cost you.
Below are 5 keys to setting up for a buried lie in deep rough:
• Sole the club on its heel
• Choke down on the grip
• Open your stance
• Set the club earlier
• Grip the club tighter
To escape deep rough, you need to set up to take advantage of three things: (1) the club-face’s hitting surface, (2) the sole’s bounce, and (3) the wedge’s loft. Making the follow-ing 5 simple adjustments to your setup achieves this:
• Sole the club on its heel behind the ball. Soling the club maximizes the clubface’s bounce and its effective hitting area.
• Choke down on the grip. This forces you to bend over a bit more in your stance, enabling you to lower your hands so you can place your wrist in a more pre-cocked posi-tion.
• Open your stance a bit. This promotes an outside-in swing. It also opens the clubface more to compensate for resting the clubface on its sole. Otherwise, the ball will tend to go right when hit.
• Set the club earlier in your backswing. This helps you take the club up earlier than usual when going back.
• Grip the club a bit tighter than usual. Then use more of a chopping motion to hack your way out of the deep rough.
Don’t use a forward press to start your swing with a buried lie. It prevents you from tak-ing advantage of the wedge’s bounce and open clubface.
Make these simple setup adjustments when buried in deep rough and you’ll blast your way out of the rough without costing yourself strokes.