Mike Sullivan runs a golf school in Raleigh NC, a couple of hours from where I live. Here are his tips on how to play from Bermuda rough, both near the green and beside the fairway.
Beside the green probably didn't throw you at all. If the ball's on top of the grass, great -- you can just chip it. But when the ball has sunk down into the heavy stuff, it's all about the bunker shot -- hit behind the ball and let the grass lift the ball out.
But out in the rough beside the fairway is a bit trickier. Mike says if the ball is less than halfway down in the rough, you're likely to get a flier. But if it's deeper, you're likely to lose distance so you should take a longer club and make more of a controlled swing in order to make better contact.
The coolest tip from this is his warning that, when you try to swing hard out of deep rough -- which is when you really need to hit close to the ball in order to make decent contact -- you're more likely to hit the ball fat and flub the shot. This is a mistake you often see, even from the pros. Don't make the same mistake!
In my opinion, the tips for around the green are pretty much no-brainers. But when you're out there in the rough after a poor drive, I think these tips might not be the whole story -- the condition of the rough has to be considered as well, since thin dry rough behaves a bit differently from thick juicy rough. Keep that in mind.
Still, these tips are a really good place to start when you're standing over an almost invisible lie in Bermuda rough and trying to choose a club.
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