In every round of golf you will ever play, you’re going to encounter some unlucky situations that will present some shot making difficulties for you. Let’s face it – bad breaks are simply a part of the game. The key is how you respond to those situations. You can get angry, whine, or experience anxiety, or you can learn to embrace the challenge of getting out of the trouble you’ve gotten yourself into and executing a good recovery shot. Clearly, maintaining a positive attitude is the better way to go.

But having the confidence to know that you’re able to produce the type of shot that is needed is a big part of being able to stay positive. And that confidence comes from knowing how to hit the required recovery shot.

In this article, we’re going to look at some of the key recovery or “specialty” shots around the green that you’ll face from time to time. These four short game shots are common ones that you’ll run into, and we’ll describe the technique that you should employ when you’re faced with them during a round. These four specialty shots are:

• The Chip Shot from Deep Rough
• The Long Bunker Shot
• The Buried Lie in a Bunker
• The Flop Shot

Chip Shot from Deep Rough

You’ve hit a pretty nice approach shot that didn’t miss the green by much. You feel pretty good about your shot but, when you arrive at your ball, you find it sitting down in an awkward lie in thick grass. Not only was this result unlucky, but it has the potential to add several wasted strokes to your scorecard....unless you know the proper technique to use on the upcoming chip shot.

This type of chip shot is clearly different than the standard chip you’d hit from a clean lie, where your primary focus is on making crisp, ball-first contact. On this shot from the rough, with so much grass around the ball, the first thing you need to understand is that, when you hit this shot, your club face won’t even make actual contact with the ball. In fact, as your club head approaches impact, all of the grass behind the ball acts as a buffer, getting between the club face and the ball.

Can you think of another shot in golf where the club face actually never makes contact with the ball? That’s right, on a bunker shot. In the straightforward greenside sand shot, your club face never actually hits the ball. It contacts the sand several inches behind the ball, and the forward force of the sand being propelled into the ball pushes the ball out onto the green.

That, in a nutshell, is the secret to the chip shot from thick rough. You should play this chip shot just as you play the bunker shot, by planning to contact the grass behind the ball. Here’s how:

• Position the ball forward in your stance (just as you do in the bunker). Open your stance a bit (aim slightly left of target). Also open the clubface, and make sure that you keep it open through impact.

• On your backswing, pick your arms up quickly (i.e., have a little steeper takeaway), and hinge your wrists. On the downswing, deliver the club head into the grass behind the ball. But you won’t need a lot of follow-through after impact. The loft and weight of the club are all that’s needed to pop the ball out.

• Select the sand wedge to execute this shot. Why? Three reasons: 1) At 56°-58°, it has enough loft to create the higher trajectory you’ll need to exit the deep rough. Also, since you’re not actually contacting the ball directly, there won’t be much spin on the ball. Therefore you need to rely on a higher ball flight to help reduce the rollout on the green. 2) It’s the heaviest club in your bag, and the added weight of the club head will make it easier for you to get through the thick grass. 3) The sand wedge has a unique sole feature called a “flange.” The flange works well in the sand trap by preventing the leading edge of the club from digging into the sand. It works the same way for you in this deeper rough.

This is a shot that you should practice before you find yourself in this situation. With some trial and error, you’ll begin to get a feel for how much the thick grass will actually slow down the club head, and how much “energy” you’ll therefore need to exert in the swing to compensate for that.

The Long Bunker Shot

The long sand shot has been described as the toughest shot in golf. Executing a bunker shot from 40-50 yards can be challenging for even the best golfers, let alone for the higher handicap amateur. You’ve undoubtedly been faced with this shot from time to time, and it’s a fairly safe bet that you’ve probably experienced “inconsistent” results.

Because of the relative difficulty of this shot, a good piece of advice for amateurs would be to lower the bar a bit for what constitutes a good shot. On standard greenside bunker shots, your goal should be to get the ball out of the trap and to a point on the green where you have a decent chance to make your putt. On these longer bunker shots, though, a shot anywhere on the putting surface can be considered a good shot. Even from long range, you still have a chance to sink your first putt, but at least you’re in a position where you should be able to limit the number of putts needed to two. If you can 2-putt after a 40-50 yard bunker shot, you will have done exceedingly well.

But first, you need to hit the shot onto the green. The good news: just one very small change to your standard bunker shot technique is all that is needed:

• As you normally do from the bunker, position the ball forward in your stance. For right handers, aim yourself (feet, hips, shoulders) slightly left of the target.

• Dig down a little bit into the sand with your feet to establish a firm base.

• Open the club face a little from its standard square-to-the-target orientation.

• Place a little more of your weight on the forward leg, and make your swing path follow the line established by your feet/hips/shoulders, entering the sand a few inches behind the ball.

Note that all of the setup and swing instructions mentioned thus far are identical to the techniques that you use on a standard greenside bunker shot. There’s no need to change any of them. But here’s the key change to make when executing the long bunker shot:

• Instead of selecting your sand wedge to hit the long bunker shot, choose a lower-lofted club in its place. By hitting this shot with, say, an 8-iron or a 9-iron, and changing nothing else in the swing, the ball will come out easily and fly the added distance required. There’s no need to swing a lot harder. A basic 10 o’clock/2 o’clock swing will produce all of the distance you’ll need for this length of shot.

The long bunker shot is definitely one that you hope to encounter only rarely, but when you do, it should be a little comforting to know that you can execute the shot using the same basic setup and swing that you use on standard bunker shots. By simply changing your club selection to a lower-lofted option, it will be much easier to get these challenging shots onto the green.

The Buried Lie Bunker Shot

The plugged lie in a bunker is another shot that most high handicap amateurs dread. Not knowing how to hit this shot adds to their anxiety, and as a result, they’re not often happy with the results that they see.

But hitting from a buried lie is not as hard as you may think, and by making the right set up and swing changes, you’ll find that you can become far more consistent, and can even occasionally get these shots relatively close to the hole.

The best way to describe the changes needed is to compare the buried lie swing to the normal bunker shot swing:

• On standard bunker shots, you aim your body so that is aligned left of the target. For buried lies, you should take a stance that is more square to your target line.

• On standard bunker shots, you want to open your club face significantly, so that the leading edge of the club face is raised off the ground, preventing it from digging too much into the sand behind the ball. The flange on the sole of the wedge creates the “bounce angle” that allows the head to slide through the sand rather than digging into it. For a buried lie, however, you should maintain a square club face that is aimed directly at the pin. Unlike normal sand shots, your goal here is to actually use the leading edge of the club face to dig into the sand behind the ball.

• For a normal sand shot, the ball is positioned well forward in your stance. For a buried lie, the ball should be placed further back in your stance, just back of center. With this ball position, and with most of your weight on your front leg, you’re better able to make the steeper angle of attack that is needed to execute this shot.

• An early setting of the wrists on the backswing will contribute to the steep angle of attack that you should be trying to create.

• Having cocked the wrists on the backswing, accelerate downward sharply on the downswing, so that you enter the sand at a steep angle behind the ball. Keep in mind that, because your angle of attack is so steep, there will be a lot of sand that the club head will encounter behind the ball, and this will obviously limit the amount of follow through that you’ll be able to take. At the most, your follow-through will extend only a small way past the ball.

• Another thing to keep in mind: because the club head will be slowed down dramatically by entering the sand so steeply, you will have to generate more energy and force in the swing than you would on a normal bunker shot.

• Finally, be aware that a shot hit in this manner will come out lower and with much less spin than normal. So the ball can be expected to land on the green and roll out quite a bit after landing. Take this rollout into account as you prepare to hit the shot.

The Flop Shot

It’s amazing to watch Tour pros like Phil Mickelson and Tiger Woods hit those remarkable, high-flighted lob shots that stop so quickly when they land on the green. Yes, they are both incredibly talented athletes who spend countless hours practicing these shots. But just as importantly, they know the technique that is needed to execute this delicate shot. How do they do it?

• In terms of the set up, this is a shot that is played like a bunker shot. Your alignment should be to the left of the target, and your clubface should be very open. The goal is a high trajectory, so having your club face set square to the target will defeat the purpose. Place the ball forward in your stance, just as you do in the sand.

• Take a wider-than-normal stance, with your feet almost as far apart as they are when hitting driver, and keep a lot of flex in your knees. This is a shot where you definitely want to minimize your leg action, and this wider stance will help you to quiet your lower body. As you widen your stance, push the grip end of the club down so that your hands are just above knee high. This makes it easier to maintain an extremely open club face throughout the swing.

• Your attack angle to the ball should be slightly downward. Many amateurs make the mistake of hanging back on their rear leg in a subconscious attempt to help the ball into the air. Keeping your weight on the back leg can cause a lot of inconsistencies in where your club head makes ground contact, and can encourage you to flip your hands at impact, resulting in both fat and thin shots.

• On your takeaway, you should set your wrists fairly early. This helps keep the club face open and enables the slight downward attack angle you’re trying to achieve.

• Finally – and this is the key to the flop shot – when you swing through impact, you need to avoid turning your hips through the shot as you do on a normal swing. That would encourage the club face to rotate closed through impact, which you must avoid. That’s fine on a standard golf shot, but is exactly what you’re trying to avoid on the flop shot. Instead, with a quiet lower body, accelerate the club head past the hands at impact. As long as you maintain the downward attack angle, the club will slip nicely under the ball, and the open face will produce the high trajectory you want to see.

Conclusion

There are several other specialty shots around the green that we could also discuss, but if you’re able to get proficient at these four, you will be able to save yourself a lot of strokes that you are currently giving away.

When you go to the practice range, instead of simply hitting drivers and other long shots, take some time and head on over to the short game area and practice these specialty shots. You’ll be rewarded when you get out on the course and find yourself in one of these tricky situations.

To explore more articles in the Short Game Mastery Series, please see:

• How to Improve Your Pitching
• How to Improve Your Chipping
• How to Improve Your Greenside Sand Play
• How to Improve Your Putting