5 steps for hitting your ball out of a sand-filled divot

These five tips will allow you to blast the ball out of a divot.

Picture this: You’ve just striped a drive down the middle of the fairway. It’s in perfect position and at your favorite yardage. As you walk up to your ball, you’re thinking about making birdie. But then you see a problem — it’s settled in a divot.

This is one of the most unfortunate sights in the game, and it’s bound to happen at some point. However, it doesn’t have to spell doom and gloom for your chance at birdie. If you use the proper technique, you can still hit a quality shot and walk away with a circle on your card.

In this edition of How to Hit Every Shot, GOLF Top 100 Teacher Lou Guzzi shares five tips for hitting out of a divot.

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1. Ball position back

You’ll want to adjust your setup a touch so the ball is in the back of your stance. This ball position will allow you to get a descending blow on the ball and blast it out of the unfortunate lie.

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2. Lean forward

Another element of your setup you’ll want to tweak is leaning forward and making sure the shaft matches that lean.

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3. Early hinge

When you make your swing, you’ll want to make an aggressive blow at the ball to make sure you can blast the ball out of the divot. An easy way to do this is to hinge the club earlier in your backswing. This will help you generate more speed and produce a downward strike.

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4. Steeper attack angle

As mentioned earlier, you’ll want your attack angle to be steep so you can produce ball-first contact. Everything you’ve done in the setup and takeaway to this point will promote this steep attack angle. Now you just need to make sure you produce aggressive contact.

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5. Complete your swing

It’s easy to get caught up in the divot and curtail your swing, but you need to make sure to complete the swing. Stay aggressive. Your ball should come out of the divot with ease and get you back into play.

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Golf.com Editor

Zephyr Melton is an assistant editor for GOLF.com where he spends his days blogging, producing and editing. Prior to joining the team at GOLF.com, he attended the University of Texas followed by stops with Team USA, the Green Bay Packers and the PGA Tour. He assists on all things instruction and covers amateur and women’s golf.

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