Rough Justice

Tour players spend most of their time off the course working on developing their short-game skills - and not always from a perfect lie on the fairway.

Miss a green and you never quite know what sort of lie to expect, and so the smart players test themselves from all sorts of situations, and figure out the specific technique they need to get a ball up and down from pretty much anywhere.

So let me share with you some tour secrets that can help you to extend the versatility of your short-game with a look at how to take the ball cleanly from fluffy grass, how to get the clubhead beneath the ball for height and control from longer stuff and even how to play a controlled high shot from the jungle.

Oh, and a useful shot with the ever-trusty hybrid.

As ever, imagination is the mother of invention...

Wide, U-shaped stroke 'collects' the ball

Let's look first at a common scenario: you have missed the green by a matter of a few feet and find your ball sitting atop fluffy grass. It's a perfect lie for smashing a driver,or a fairway wood, but how do you go about playing a delicate chip shot that gets you the clean contact you need to control the flight and landing speed of the ball on the green?

From this type of lie,when the ball is sitting 'up', there's always that danger of catching it off the top of the clubface,which deadens impact. So you need a technique that guarantees a clean and precise strike. This is what you do:go down the shaft of whatever club you need to give you the desired loft-and-roll combination,and then,as you create your set-up, sit the club up on its toe a little.

Stand almost as you would to putt - here I'm even using my regular putting grip. With your feet together, alignment slightly open to the flag, you want to feel that your arms hang comfortably close to your body,while your weight just eases towards the front foot. Play the ball from middle to back in your stance (experiment), so that your hands are slightly ahead,with the shaft leaning gently to the target.

From here, it's a relatively simple case of working the upper body, arms, hands and club as one unit. There's little wrist action to speak of, and a natural U-shaped swing collects the ball.

How to play a 'pop-up' when the ball is sitting down

So, you find your ball just a few yards off the edge of the green, but sitting down a little in fluffy rough.The pin is just a few paces onto the green, and so you need to get the ball up pretty quickly and have it land and stop softly within a relatively short area - not easy out of this sort of rough.

Well, here's the solution. Take your sand iron or lob wedge, and as you set up with the ball more or less in the centre of your stance, 'soften' your left hand and wrist so you create this distinct 'cup' shape.