All golfers know that at one time or another, during every round of golf, they will be hitting out of trouble. It does not matter how well you hit the ball on any given day, something is bound to test your ability to recover. After many, many different shots from less than perfect positions, we all can say with certainty that some recovery shots better suit our game than others. We all have our favourite worst shot to have to make and hope when things go sour, that is the worst that it gets. It really is a matter of perspective!
To help shape the flow of this article, I asked a question on Twitter that will limit the scope of our discussion. Here are the choices I offered:
Time
As you can see, these are pretty fair trouble shots where most golfers will experience during a typical round. I am sure there are others that might be as plausible, however I think I this covers the most likely from my experience. Over the years, I have hit many trouble shots and I would rank the above list, in order of hitting preference as follows:
- Out of a divot
- A plugged Sand shot
- Punch shot out of the woods
- Out of thick 4 inch grass
Of course I would rather not hit any of these shots, but, being forced to choose, that is how I would rank trouble shots in order of ease to execute. Before your hair simultaneously combusts, I understand that there are degrees of crappy conditions we can find ourselves in, but there is a reason I ranked this list the way I did.
My rankings fit my game the best. Yup, it is as simple as that! My choices were made on the confidence I have to successfully make one of these trouble shots. Additionally, I believe that the top two provide a good opportunity to hit the green or at least be in a great position to make my next shot.
Additionally, by ball striking also fits this list. I do have to add, I hate hitting out of long grass and try to avoid it as much as possible. I think of all the trouble shots, this is the least predictable for success. At least for my game.
I am certain that all golfers would prefer to never hit out of trouble, but if you did what would be your most and least favourite recovery shot?
I am a grateful golfer! See you on the links!
The Grateful Golfer 
Well I guess it would depend on the lie in the woods and maybe what you’re expecting to get out of it. A little punch shot out of the woods is usually going to be the easiest of those choices to hit consistently well for me I would say. But that’s assuming I have a swing. And hitting from that divot isn’t too bad either so if you aren’t expecting perfection from that shot, you should be able to do reasonably well with it. A plugged sand shot green side with some green to play with isn’t that hard either if the sand is nice and soft but if you’ve plugged into wet sand, you’re going to need some real faith in your swing. And lastly, hacking it out of deep rough is always a crap shoot so I’d count that as hardest though it really depends on your expectations.
Today I was supposed to go back for my fitting but decided to wait a little longer. After hitting many of the new drivers, I’m forced to face the fact that in stock form, they aren’t as long as my current driver which is a half inch longer than todays standard driver. And I don’t “feel” like any of them were better. Center strikes felt good of course, but no better than my beat up old driver. And off center hits didn’t fair any better than mine. I’m wondering if maybe just putting a different shaft in my driver would be the better option. It would certainly save me probably 400 easy as well as solve my immediate ball flight issue. What to do?
So instead of going, I’m letting it stew a little. Maybe take the lesson first anyway and see what that does before deciding. And so I went out to get in 18. Met some guys who play better than most I’ve run into around here. They made me work to stay ahead. It was a fun round. I had only 3 terrible shots where I bladed what should have been easy chips. But I got all the really tough ones right. I ended with 3 birdies and two doubles from those bladed chips. Two on one hole and the other sent me out of bounds so I deserved those doubles. But I almost clawed my way back. I missed a final birdie on 18 by a whisker but my round was good enough to take the win by 3 strokes.
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Kevin,
How old is our driver head and what is the material? There is metal fatigue on some clubs, especially with the amount of golf you play. I am not sure how to test it, but if you are not getting any noticeable difference in contact, maybe a new shaft is the answer. I am no expert on this matter by any means. I would research this a bit more for sure. Great game and glad you were able to put a W in the win column.
Cheers Jim
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