How To Go Low On The Course

You just pulled your second shot on the par five and its heading towards a group of trees.

You think it lands short of the big trees and you are already imagining the shot as shown in photo #1. This will be an easy shot you say. But as you approach your ball, you don’t find it behind the little tree.

The ball must have taken a huge bounce to the left and now it’s behind the big trees with the low branches as shown in photo #2. And now you’ve found yourself in another “That’s Golf” scenario. If you are visiting from out of town for the Ryder Cup, this year we have been exploring different “That’s Golf” scenarios we find ourselves in on the course. We don’t refer to them as trouble shots. Trouble shots are where you put a bad swing on the ball and end up in trouble. Rather, they are more like a normal bad bounce; rub of the green type of scenarios, hence the name “That’s Golf”.

The mistake that golfers make with this shot is pulling a long or mid iron out of the bag and trying to hit it low. Sometimes it works, but most of the time the ball trajectory will be too high where the tree branch will be struck. An easier method is to use a three wood. Play the ball in the middle of your stance, choke down on the grip, and stand closer to the ball. Go ahead and use the half to three quarter backswing. On the downswing, just keep your hands ahead of the clubhead through impact so the clubhead will strike the ball at a downward approach. Keep in mind this is not the type of shot you want to be a hero with; you just might be in trouble on your next shot! Your goal is simply hit the ball under the trees and back on the fairway.

So that is how you go low. Were you thinking this article was about going low on your score? To do that, you will need assistance from your favorite PGA or LPGA Professional.

You think it lands short of the big trees and you are already imagining the shot as shown in photo #1. This will be an easy shot you say. But as you approach your ball, you don’t find it behind the little tree.

The ball must have taken a huge bounce to the left and now it’s behind the big trees with the low branches as shown in photo #2. And now you’ve found yourself in another “That’s Golf” scenario. If you are visiting from out of town for the Ryder Cup, this year we have been exploring different “That’s Golf” scenarios we find ourselves in on the course. We don’t refer to them as trouble shots. Trouble shots are where you put a bad swing on the ball and end up in trouble. Rather, they are more like a normal bad bounce; rub of the green type of scenarios, hence the name “That’s Golf”.

The mistake that golfers make with this shot is pulling a long or mid iron out of the bag and trying to hit it low. Sometimes it works, but most of the time the ball trajectory will be too high where the tree branch will be struck. An easier method is to use a three wood. Play the ball in the middle of your stance, choke down on the grip, and stand closer to the ball. Go ahead and use the half to three quarter backswing. On the downswing, just keep your hands ahead of the clubhead through impact so the clubhead will strike the ball at a downward approach. Keep in mind this is not the type of shot you want to be a hero with; you just might be in trouble on your next shot! Your goal is simply hit the ball under the trees and back on the fairway.

So that is how you go low. Were you thinking this article was about going low on your score? To do that, you will need assistance from your favorite PGA or LPGA Professional.