An underrated part of playing out of the rough is knowing the type of grass you’re dealing with. A ball coming out of a buried lie in Bermuda grass will react differently than one in Kentucky Bluegrass, or fescue, or any of the other varieties. The same is true for the flier lie. Simply put, picking the right club and right shot is much harder if you’re not sure how the ball is going to react when you hit it.
How, then, does one go about developing versatile skills for playing out of rough?
“Just experience of playing on all types of grasses,” says Tiger Woods in Episode 7 of “My Game: Tiger Woods—Shotmaking Secrets, Presented by Geico. “One of the reasons why I’ve always wanted to play around the world is to be able to handle all different types of conditions.”
Tiger’s commitment to broadening his knowledge of grass types was part of his motivation for moving away from his home state of California in 1996, the year he turned pro.
“One of the reasons why I moved down to the South and got out of California is, it’s very easy to play there [in California]. Coming to Florida and learning how to putt on Bermuda, learning how to chip on Bermuda, it took years. So, that’s just one of those things that I’ve learned through experience.”
For more insight on how Woods goes about playing from the rough, check out the full episode.