Eddie Young of the Classic Swing Golf School at Legends Golf Resort in Myrtle Beach, S.C. shows us how to handle greenside chips from deep Bermudagrass rough.
Eddie Young:
Hi, I’m Eddie Young from the Classic Swing Golf School. We're going to talk about Bermudagrass in the peak season and how to hit these little shots around the green when it's sitting in the rough. We’ve got two different situations right here. I’ve got one ball sitting on top, and I got one ball buried in the rough. The one buried in the rough is probably the most difficult to do because now, I’ve got grass between the ball and the club face.
On this one, I'm going to go ahead and play it a little bit more like a sand shot. And I have to be aggressive with this and trust my golf swing. So, I'm going to take the golf club, and we're going to actually tilt it back a little bit and open the face to get rid of this leading edge. We're going to bounce right underneath it and let the grass throw it up on the green. My goal here in this type of rough is just to get the thing on the green. I'm really not concerned about getting it close, although I'd like that, but I'm just trying to advance it forward and get to my next shot, get ready for the next shot. Just like in the bunker, I'm going to put my weight a little forward. I'm going to take the grip, lean it forward and low, and from here, I just want to throw that club head right underneath it, and just really make sure I'm aggressive turning through this. And that would be the look of the shot right there. It's on the green. I can go make that putt or at least have attempt to.
We get to the next one, and it's sitting up on top of the grass. Well, the grass depth here is a good one to two inches right here. And this is a very wiry grass. If I tip this first shot on this one, right here, what's getting ready to happen is I'll go right underneath it, and the ball never moves, or it maybe only goes five feet. So, with this, I'm going to get rid of the lob wedge or sand wedge, and I'm going to go to, once again, a less-lofted club. This happens to be a nine iron. You could use an eight iron or a pitching wedge, but I got less loft right here.
I'm going to put the ball back in my stance. I'm going to lean the shaft a little bit more forward and almost like a putt, I'm just going to pick this off the top of this and just let it roll out. Okay, I don't have to swing hard. I just need to make solid contact and keep the club face going through the ball at this angle so it jumps off of there, versus trying to get a lot of this.