Practice Hitting out of the Rough: Rukket Style
- rukket
- Apr 23, 2014
- 2 min read
Now that you have left that corner of your yard un-mowed for an extra month you can get down to practicing shots you would never be able to attempt at the driving range. Pop up your target and practice shooting at different distances. Here are a few tips to help you get better at correcting the mistakes.
Look at the lie of your ball and try to predict how much grass you are going to catch between your club and the ball. The more grass you catch, the less club speed you have and less spin due to little contact between the ball and club face. Swing harder or softer based on your estimate.
For a normal rough lie choose a club that is one up and choke up on it, about 1 inch. Keep the ball in the center of your stance when using your irons (you probably won’t use a hybrid hitting at a chipping target in your back yard but if you do move up an inch).
The deeper into the rough the ball is the more loft you are going to want. Go for a sand, pitching or lob wedge. One can also open the face of an iron to increase loft.
Keep your grip a little tighter so the extra resistance from the vegetation doesn’t twist the club. Don’t overdo it though; your wrists need to still cock.
Obviously you want to hit the ball as cleanly as possible. To do this, do a ¾ backswing and keep most of your weight on the front foot. Try steeper swings for a ball that is really in there.
Practice getting the ball back onto the fairway, this is certainly going to lower your scores. Don’t go all out if it’s tangled in the bush. Statistically you are going to get much more from saving the shot than trying to make up hundreds of yards. It’s not the glamorous shot but the tried and true that’s going to improve your game. Play smarter, score better.
Practice this shot at home and be prepared for the inevitable. Practice the less glamorous parts of your game to be that much better on the course and get that dedicated practice time in that others aren’t when they are whacking away at the range. Also it’s a great time saver as you don’t have to travel and with only 30 minutes in the evenings it really adds up.
Check out Rukket's Skee Golf Chipper for great short game practice everywhere: Pop-Up SKEE-GOLF Chipping Target
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