Top of the Club Contact

2,

Do you have any advice for the shot the lie is telling you that no matter what you do you’re not going to make clean contact with the ball and it will most likely make contact about 8 grooves up the face? It seems to happen most with me on an uphill lie in thick bermuda rough grass where the ball is not quite resting on the ground (2 grooves off the ground).

Thanks for your help

I would try to make thin contact as if you are hitting the bottom third of the ball…what will happen with these is when you swing from the lie you described the club will more often than not strike the grass before the ball…the ball is only being supported up by strands of grass, so the club contacting the grass strands will act a little like a scythe and cut you deeper under the ball, especially from bermuda. This is a pitch or full shot I am presuming.

Thanks for your response as always 2M…Yes you’re right it’s the type of shot you feel your clubhead being pulled down slightly as you try to make contact…The particular shot I had was about 60 yards and it only ended up flying 45 yards tops…Maybe I could take a photo to show you and everyone else who cares the exact lie. I’ll be there later at the end of the week. I’ll experiment with thinning it and let you know…

Mashie, I look forward to seeing your photo(s) when you get a chance and I hope it’s easy for you to obtain them.
1T

Another thought I have is to make my swing shape more like a [size=150]U[/size] instead of a [size=150]V[/size]… so even more shallow than vertical… Stricker does this very well with all aspects of his short game and is the best pitcher/chipper on the planet

OK 1T thanks for the feedback…Sometimes I wonder if I’m the only curious one about odd ball shots…

2, U shape up the slope or less grass and straight into the ball like a level lie?

The other thought I have is to try to hit it with the trailing edge like a bunker shot…You’ve got the loft with the slope and maybe use an 8-iron and maybe the club won’t dig down

Mashie,

Yep, I care a lot and believe there are plenty of others too.

I am forced to care about the odd shots from off the fairway or on uneven lies, etc.
Someday I hope to spend less time in the rough much of which is knee deep and coarse grass where I mainly play. But most of the time on the fairways, there are very tight, grabby lies with uneven slopes with infinite combinations.

One of the reasons I am interested in your photos is that describing the lie of the ball, uneven slopes, stances, and some solutions in words only is very difficult to convey accurately to the reader. Follow up questions about verbal descriptions get even more difficult to follow and sort out. Two of the finest books I have for trouble shots are one by Tom Watson and another by Raymond Floyd, but they cannot cover every possibility any more than we can, and they aren’t taking questions like we can ask here (as far as I know). I can’t be the only one who gets into trouble on the golf course. Real life situations that can be addressed with photos and/or video here will be a great addition imho.

Thanks for the inspiration 1T

Here’s a vid of the exact area on the 10th hole on my course at the start of a three hole stretch known as “Devil’s Bend”

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZwDFKsbF5KQ[/youtube]

I call it the clubface climber…But as 2M mentioned, the clubhead could be moving down through impact as well.It looks innocent enough. But the trick to reading it correctly is the ball sits down but actually hovers above the ground at the same time. You can kind see how spongy the grass is in the vid. Some more photos to follow…

They just cut the rough when I went to film this but one might be able see the gist of problem. It’s hard to see but it’s an uphill lie as well.

As you can see for this shot, you can’t be long, short, left or right…The banks don’t hold the ball and carom wildly if you hit them directly.
10th Green from 60 yards sm.jpg
Ball 2nd View sm.jpg
Ball Close up sm.jpg

Here’s a diagram of the U swing and the V swing

U swing is more of a stiff wristed no cock of the hands movement
V swing is more of a cocking wrist release style

When you do the U swing sweep for lies like this you have less chance of putting the club under the ball and therefore mistiming the strike.

uswingvswing.JPG

The pics, video, graphics, descriptions, and coaching from you are very helpful. Thanks to each of you.