Your rough swing is not your fairway swing. Pros make 3 changes to hit better approach shots

Mark Blackburn was voted No. 1 by his peers on Golf Digest's 2026-'27 ranking of The 50 Best Teachers in America. In this series, “What the Pros Do That You Don't,” Blackburn highlights the key adjustments that tour players make to play the right shot at the right time.

What makes the rough so difficult is the unpredictability of how the ball will come out—sometimes dead, other times hot. Both are caused by grass getting trapped between the clubface and the ball. You can see this in the video below, taken from Golf Digest's Lie Detector series.

Pros manage this by making setup and swing adjustments to steepen their angle of attack into impact, so less grass comes between the face and ball. Many average players make no changes and wonder why the rough grabs the clubhead and kills the shot.

To get the club to travel more steeply into the ball, stand a few inches closer, grip down and put 70 percent of your weight on your lead leg like I demonstrate in the video below.

From this setup, the club will tend to swing slightly to the outside going back (lead image), which sets up a steeper downswing. Feel like the clubhead drops straight down on the ball. The last thing you want from the rough is a sweeping motion through impact.

Also, because the ball tends to spin less from the rough, pros often take less club to play for rollout. If you’re 150 yards from the hole, you might need to carry the ball only 130 to get it pin-high. Club down accordingly.

Things the Pros Do: Forget ‘shallow.’ Use these steep moves to chip it close from rough / The two backswings you need for wedge shots / Want spinnier chip shots? Use this swing thought

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Blackburn’s new book, The Coaching Code, is out October 1. In it, he explains the concepts he has used in coaching dozens of tour players, including Justin Rose, Matt Fitzpatrick, Max Homa and Collin Morikawa. Blackburn is a Golf Digest Teaching Professional.