I played 9 holes yesterday. The course I played had the fairway and the deep rough. There is no first cut of rough, only what I would call the second cut or deep rough.
My irons shots from the fairway were solid. My iron shots out of the thick rough were terrible. With the standard setup and swing, I was hitting the grass and not making good contact with the ball. The ball was coming out low and most didnt go very far.
What setup and swing changes do I have to make for hitting an iron out of the deep rough?
Thanks.
Any updates? When I play tracks with thick rough I never hit more than a 7i out of thick stuff. As Tom said, the thicker the grass the more loft is needed. Net/net, rough means you hit a bad shot. Take your medicine and get it back in play. Ideally, you are simply playing to a yardage you like for a chance to get up and down.
1) Place some additional weight forward in setup.
2) Play the ball a bit further back in the stance.
3) Firm up your grip a bit (without adding tension).
4) Emphasize the tilt component to go along with that extra forward weight as you're going to need more of a descending blow to extract to ball.
4) The thicker the cabbage, the more loft you're going to need.
5) In heavy rough expect the grass to grab your clubface and close it, affecting both starting direction and curvature. Make necessary alignment adjustments to compensate for this.
6) Take only what the lie gives you. Sometimes that means just chipping it back into play. Don't go from trouble to trouble. Remember one of Dirty Harry's famous quotes: "A man's got to know his limitations..."