Having spent years teaching on Long Island near Shinnecock, I have seen my fair share of rough, including thick fescue. While it can certainly be beautiful, it can also be extremely challenging if you don’t know how to handle it. The good news is that with the right technique and smart decision-making, you can learn to escape fescue and virtually any type of rough.
Here are five things you should keep in mind to hit solid shots from the rough.
1. Analyze the lie
The first step is to assess how thick the rough is. A simple question to ask yourself is: How much of the golf ball can I see?
The less of the ball that is visible, the more conservative you need to be. Thick rough makes it difficult to make clean contact and significantly limits how far you can advance the ball.
Understanding the severity of the lie will help you make better decisions before you ever swing the club.
2. Don’t get greedy
The worse the lie, the more important it is to play conservatively and focus on getting the ball back in play. Most golfers have experienced the frustration of trying to advance the ball too far, only to have the rough grab the club and leave the ball barely moving. What should have been one recovery shot turns into two.
My son and I saw plenty of this while playing in Scotland. Getting too aggressive with club selection or target choice often produced disappointing results.
Learn to take your medicine. Sometimes the smartest play is simply returning the ball to the fairway, where you can make clean contact and attack the next shot.
3. Club wisely
Club selection is critical when playing from thick rough. In most situations, more loft is better than less, although your strength and clubhead speed should also be considered.
The setup adjustments required for these shots tend to reduce loft at impact, so choosing a more lofted club is usually a smart decision.
In many cases, a wedge is the best option. When you’re between clubs, err on the side of additional loft to improve your chances of extracting the ball cleanly.
4. Set up steep
Proper setup is the key to getting the ball out of heavy rough. Position the ball in the center of your stance or slightly back. This helps you contact the ball before the club encounters too much grass.
Lean your body slightly toward the target so that your lead shoulder sits lower than your trail shoulder. This steeper shoulder alignment encourages the club to travel down the back of the ball with a steeper angle of attack, increasing the likelihood of solid contact and reducing the amount of grass trapped between the clubface and the ball.
The shaft should also lean slightly toward the target, with the end of the grip remaining aligned with the center of your body. This setup effectively reduces loft and promotes a more descending strike. Keep your weight favoring the lead side throughout the entire swing. Avoid falling back or trying to lift the ball into the air. Doing so encourages the club to strike the ground before the ball, making it much more difficult to advance the shot.
You want to start forward, stay forward, and finish forward. This helps steepen the angle of attack and improves the quality of contact.
5. Stay down
The setup creates the conditions for a steeper angle of attack, but now you need speed and commitment through impact.
The downswing should be exactly that — down. Feel as though the club is driving into the ground after striking the ball. Aggressive speed through impact helps maximize distance and gives the club enough momentum to cut through the rough.
Because so much of the motion is directed downward, the follow-through may appear abbreviated. Often, the ground and thick grass will naturally limit how far the club can continue after impact, and that’s perfectly acceptable.
Maintaining your weight forward and your upper body over the ball will also contribute to a shorter finish. Focus on making a committed, descending strike rather than trying to create a full, flowing follow-through.
