Matt Conner's Golf Tips: Hitting out of the rough
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This year the rough is punishing as we have had wet and warm conditions so the rough is really thick and long.
When the rough is as bad as it is at the moment you need to change your technique to help you recover the ball back onto the fairway.
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Hide AdYou will need to use a more lofted club and depending on the severity, you may just need a sand wedge to hack the ball out of the rough back on to the fairway.
When playing from the rough you need to deliver the club to the ball with a steeper descent angle.
The way you do this is by cocking your wrists more in the back-swing, this picks up the club quicker, creating a steeper angle for you to hit down into the back of the ball.
This will then help your strike and will stop the long grass from grabbing the club head and twisting it causing mis-hits and also shots to the left if you are a right-handed golfer.
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Hide AdA simple way to remember this steep angle into the ball is the way that I teach the juniors. I ask them to either brush the grass or stab the grass when hitting the ball.
When the ball lies in the rough they know that they need to stab the grass.
This stabbing motion creates a steep descending blow due to the wrists cocking faster in the backswing.
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