Golf tips from the Pro: This shot doesn't have to be rough

Every golfer has been there — the rough. Fortunately for most weekend hackers, most public courses keep the rough at a reasonable height; not the four-inch-high stuff the pros often play.

In this week’s Golf Tips from the Pro, Heritage Plantation PGA teaching pro Jeff Marks talks about the easiest way to get out of the rough.

A typical rough is fair. We don’t want to make it like the U.S. Open and make it four inches or five inches, but it’s a challenge.

What you are looking at is about two-and-a-half inches, which is fairly challenging around the greens.

The biggest problem is people try to help the ball out of the rough and lift the ball. The golf club actually is designed to dig.

What we need to do is set up properly — and what that means is a pretty narrow stance. A narrow stance promotes hitting down on the golf ball — as opposed to being wide, which most people do. When you get wide it’s easy to scoop, and we want to avoid that.

We are going to get narrow. I’m going to open my stance a little bit left of my target, and that will promote the ball going straighter rather than squirting out when I hit down. I’m going to set my weight a little bit into my left knee (right knee for lefties); about 75 percent. My hands are going to be in front.

Now I’m in a position with the club leaning and my weight forward to strike down on the golf ball. That will pop it out of the rough every time.

It’s a feel shot. We don’t need a lot of force to get it out. The whole key is to keep your hands in front and hit down on the ball.

If the ball is sitting up you want to play it in the middle of your feet and play it cleaner (about like you would a normal fairway shot).

The whole key is just to remember to have your hand lead a little bit and feel like it is hitting downward. As long as your lead hand is working downward I can accelerate through the rough and get the ball to pop out every time.

If you have a question for Heritage Plantation PGA teaching pro Jeff Marks please e-mail it to News Bulletin Sports Editor Randy Dickson at randyd@crestviewbulletin.com, or mail it to Randy Dickson, 295 W. James Lee Blvd., Crestview 32536. Please slug e-mail “Golf question.” Watch video versions of these tips at crestviewbulletin.com. The complete archive of Jeff Marks’ golf tips also is available at crestviewbulletin.com. Type “Jeff Marks” in the search window.