If you are trying to remember all the rules and find yourself in a condition that leaves you unsure of how to proceed, you can’t expect to hit a great shot. You have to understand the way the club works in ALL scenarios in order to make the proper adjustment.

Without that understanding, you are left guessing. Even the best players make poor decisions due to their lack of understanding.

I’ll give you an example. I was caddying for a very good high school player of mine who had qualified for the US Women’s Amateur Championship. This is a pretty tough tournament to qualify for so it should be obvious that my student was a great player. She had hit her tee shot on the long par 5 opening hole in the left rough and had over 230 yards to the green. Her first instinct was to pull out the longest club in her bag and rip it as far down the fairway as possible to get a short shot to the green.

The trouble was that she was in some gnarly rough.

I’ve seen tour players make this same mistake so let’s not get too down on my student for not knowing some key things about hitting from the rough. To be honest, it’s my fault she didn’t know how to proceed.

As she reached for her 3-wood I asked her how good the lie was. I asked if she really thought she could get clean contact on the ball. She looked at me, Put the 3-wood back, and reached for a hybrid. I gave her a disapproving look. “Seriously?” she asked. I just responded that it was a long way to the green and we weren’t going to get there with the hybrid so we might as well just get it back in play and pitch onto the green.

Even when she settled on 4-iron, I was not happy. The problem with such a low lofted club is that not only would she have trouble hitting it solidly due to the heavy rough behind her ball, she was also going to have trouble with the rough on the target side of it. She ended up striking down on the ball and compressing it, but as she increased the angle of attack to ensure clean contact, she took so much loft off the club that it would have no chance of clearing the rough on the target side. This led to a pure shot that never quite got out of the rough and left us with another long shot.

The moral of the story is not to take more loft when hitting from the rough. The moral is to understand all lies and make good decisions based on that knowledge.

Check out a few videos below from my course: “The Truth About Lies” below.

If you’re interested in the Ultimate Membership, get more details here. There’s no long term commitment and you can pause or cancel your membership at any time.

Inside, you’ll learn everything you need to know about unconventional lies and I’m certain you will make more educated (therefore better) decisions the next time you’re on the course.

Happy Golfing!