The Loop

Saturday Morning Tip: Underreach, part 2

September 16, 2011

I'm checking in this morning from Aberdeen, Scotland, where I've been playing some golf this past week. A few days ago, I learned about a great technique from a caddie at Gleneagles Resort, and it reminded me of the tip I wrote about last Saturday: Paul Runyan's brilliant technique of not quite grounding the club on pitch shots. This allowed him to make perfect contact at impact.

Well, the caddie, Bob Kaney, told my wife to do the same thing on fairway wood shots from the rough (believe me, we get a lot of these on the courses over here). And to make matters worse, the conditions have been very wet--Scotland received the tail end of Hurricane Katia, and Gleneagles was saturated.

With the ball sitting up or down in the higher grass, most of us tend to ground the club, so the center of the clubface is actually lower than the center of the ball. And sure enough, the club tends to go under the ball at impact, causing weak pop-ups, especially when using a fairway wood.

By underreaching the club at address--especially on wood shots in the rough--the club returns to the ball for perfect contact at impact. Give it a try. I think you'll find you can hit more-solid shots, especially from thick lies.

*Roger Schiffman

Managing Editor

Golf Digest

Twitter @RogerSchiffman*