4 minute read
Pursuing your personal best in 2021- by Sean Botha
Strategy to playing Summer Golf: the lie of your ball
Seeing how beautifully green our golf courses have become is an inspiration, how nature flourishes, with all the rain that has fallen. Receiving this rain with enormous gratitude, it comes with many challenges for golfers, as the growth of the grass on the course is accelerated, creating a completely different challenge to other seasonal conditions, as your shot off the tee would naturally not travel as far as you are accustomed to, in the dryer seasons, due to the moisture filled fairways, thicker first and second cuts, reducing the roll, affecting your total distance, and strategy, to approach the lay-up area or green.
There are many variances playing in this seasonal condition that we need to take into consideration when planning on beating your personal best, planning your shots is vital, it starts with playing to your strengths.
Playing to your strengths is key, we see students completely lose their rhythm and tempo through the round, fearful of striking their ball towards the rough off the tee, dreading a terrible lie, or at worst, a lost ball, costing to many penalty shots on one hole! Play with what you have at that moment.
We often see golfers shaping the ball, and unfortunately not using the shape to their advantage, to hit the fairway, but finishing off-line to the right or left, into the first or second cut. This can lead to numerous challenges.
A simple solution is to use the shape you mainly play or are most comfortable with. Plan for the shape in your pre-shot routine, according to the layout of the hole, pick your target and strike it at a starting line that you feel comfortable with, from the right or left side of the tee box, towards the right or left side of the fairway, and allow your shape to keep you in the fairway.
It is better to shape the ball into the fairway, in this instance, than to try and play a straighter ball flight that looks good, that you may not be experienced or skilled enough with just yet. Causing a miss in intended direction, opening up a mystery box of situations that you could be presented with, in turn making it difficult to achieve what you have set out to.
CHALLENGES THAT YOU MAY ENCOUNTER WHEN MISSING THE FAIRWAY:
1. Different height lies in the first and second cut.
2. Struggling to find the ball in the second cut.
3. Ball lying deeply in the second cut.
4. Mud ball or water on the ball in moister conditions.
SOLUTIONS:
1. Assess the lie of the ball, do not generalise a shot out of the rough, your best strength here is your eyes and decision making, if the ball is lying right on top of the grass, try to grip the club lower than usual, judge this on a situational basis according to how much higher the ball is above your feet, take into account that the club travels shorter, the shorter you grip it, making a club selection relative to the situation.
A practice swing with a brushing sensation through the blades of the grass could assist you with your choice of placement of your hands on the grip. Which would in turn assist you to strike the middle of the club, instead of high on the face, interfering with your plans of hitting the green.
2. The best way to find your ball is to make sure that you watch the ball until it comes to rest and mark it with an object like a tree or bunker close by, walk on that line nearer to the direction that you have marked it on, it is completely normal to ask for assistance from your playing partners.
3. In the opposite situation to the higher lie, when the ball is buried in the grass, prioritise striking the ball with a shorter club to stay in control of your lowest point of impact, and rather reach a landing zone that you could pitch towards the green, from a cleaner lie.
Instead of hacking out a longer iron that is instinctively chosen based on the distance to the target, a shorter iron would naturally swing steeper allowing a greater chance of striking the ball cleaner than a longer iron would, allow for damage control, a good lay-up strike can turn things around for you.
If you plan on attacking the green and feel confident in your approach, take into consideration that the ball will travel shorter but may not have the intended launch angle affecting your spin rate, the ball will definitely roll out more than it usually does from a clean lie.
4. In moister conditions, the ball could have collected some mud at impact with the ground, this can make the ball fall to the right or left of the intended target, and a wet ball would not travel as far, choose your club and starting line wisely for your intended landing zone.
Please contact us at: +27 (63) 684-0181 info@wannabeachampion.com
