Chipping from the rough

[greaves1]

Re: Chipping from the rough

My reply is more about the bounce issue that has been discussed earlier in the thread. I have a 60 degree lob wedge that came with substantial bounce on it. Where I play we have no fairway watering and some of the fairways resemble something like the M1 with occasional bit of grass.

My early attempts to use the lobbie all resulted in thin shots through the green. After a while I realised that the bounce was causing the bottom edge to sit up and that ( it has to be said combined with a very average 16 handicapper swing) was causing me to gut the thing.

SOLUTION - out with the grinder and most of the bounce ended up on the garage floor.

RESULT - still got the ordinary swing but no more thins ( well not many!!)
haven't added lead tape to the club head to make up for the grinding as I felt that it was pretty heavy to start with.

[merarmou]

Re: Chipping from the rough

I will be open to your idea, and in turn can you be open to mine? I guess just saying bounce is not enough, I should also have said the shaper too. the shape of the bottom of the club and the bounce does have an effect of how it gets through rough. If you dont believe me then go take a lob wedge, pitching wedge and sand wedge, find a place where the rough is 6 inches deep, open the clubface five degrees and swing through the grass with all three clubs, do at least five swings a piece. Then set the clubs at your feet and lcose your eyes, pick up the clubs and do more swings and see if you can guess which one is which. AFTER doing that then come back and let us know what you found out. I will do this myself this weekend and let you know if I can predict the clubs. I have done this before but it was a while back so I want to be completely accurate, although I recall this pretty well, in my statements so I will do this again.

I agree. Acceleration of the chip is the key. A SW or LW will slide through the rough better than for example a 7 iron. A combination of loft and increased bounce allow the club to more easily penetrate through the rough. Bounce by definition means that more bounce will keep the club from digging too deeply into turf, grass, or sand. Since a SW is less likely to dig in, it must more easily move through the rough. Really if you think about it, the sand and rough are not very much different in that rapid decceleration occurs when when the club hits. From my point of view, chipping out of the rough (unless you have a really good lie), is almost as difficult as hitting out of the sand with a 7 iron.

[OOM]

Re: Chipping from the rough

it also to a large extent depends on the depth of the rough and te type of grass e.g. heavy lush grass like kikuyu (a noxius weed in the USA except at Riviera) takes a lot of getting out of and the ball tends to lie down in it even when its only 3 to 4 inches deep. In that case a shot similar to a bunker shot will work quite well - open stance, open the face slightly, use a SW or LW and aim about an inch behind the ball and play a firm shot with a decent follow through.

The soil surface underneath also comes into play - if it's sandy you dont have to worry about thinning the shot with a SW on the other hand if its hard clayey soil then you have to hit the ball 1st.

The most important thing is not to try to be too cute - get on the green - you can always sink a putt but it's disheartening to leave the ball in the rough because one's trying to be too delicate. remember a 3' putt from past the hole is usually just as easy as a 3 footer short of the hole - and most handicap golfers leave their chips short.

[GreeBoman]

Re: Chipping from the rough

My early attempts to use the lobbie all resulted in thin shots through the green. After a while I realised that the bounce was causing the bottom edge to sit up and that ( it has to be said combined with a very average 16 handicapper swing) was causing me to gut the thing.

To avoid this problem (without needing an angle grinder) just ensure that you have the ball back in your stance, hands ahead of ball, weight more towards the front and dont flip your wrists.
This gets the leading edge of the club on the ball first and so no bounce.
Bounce really only comes into play if you are leading with the club head, or you have the face way open (both of which you "kinda" do in with bunker shots)