Bermuda Rough – Nasty Stuff
by David Lee
Anyone who has played much golf in the South, is well aware of the difficulty encountered when playing from the Bermuda rough. It’s a natural instinct to hit down hard and try to dig the ball out of such gnarly turf. Most players fail to realize that tightening the arms in an effort to extricate the ball, will stop the core rotation of the body and make it even harder to get out. A tension increase from the arms in the downswing actually diminishes the number of foot pounds that are actively turning and going against the ball at the point of impact. It’s important to feel that the body turns the ball out of deep rough as opposed to hitting it. Although it is counter intuitive to not dig, doing so has an exact opposite effect from what we were intending to do.
When hitting these types of shots, it’s critical that the arms be in a state of pure deadfall at the start of the downswing so that the rotation of the body is not impeded whatsoever. You can actually hit very delicate shots from deep rough around the greens with very little effort - if your technique is technically correct. Remember, when the ball is sitting deep in the grass, the clubface contacts the grass and not the back of the ball. Because of this fact, ball compression is reduced, just as it is with a greenside bunker shot. Both shots require extra follow through to make up for the fact that the ball is not “helping” due to its lesser amount of spring from the clubface. Turning the connected body mass completely through the impact zone assures that the ball will advance. Don’t forget – the key is to turn the ball out of the deep stuff, not hit it.
Here is a video example of this lesson.
Here is a video example of this lesson.
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