When you are playing on the golf course, it may not happen often, but every now and then the weekend golfer hits a shot so far off line that it strays into an area of the golf course that was never really intended for play; a place where the rough is literally knee deep!

Usually this golfer will take an unplayable lie or hacks it out in several shots and tries to forget that the whole thing happened. The pros, on the other hand, rarely face such a devastating shot. Some golf courses have grass that borders the fairways, reaching as high as 20 inches and topped with a heavy head of grain which cause the stalks to droop.

Two types of shots are involved when the rough is this deep:

1. One for when you are a considerable distance from the green.

2. The other for when you are just at the edge of it.

On the longer shot you must surrender any hope of trying to reach the green. Your goal is merely to get the ball onto the side of the fairway that will best open up the green for the next shot. By doing this, you may reduce what seems to be a certain loss of one stroke to something like half a stroke.

You should use a wedge or a nine iron because these clubs have enough loft to get the ball up quickly and enough clubhead weight to fight through the grass. The blade should be opened at address because the grass will grip the clubhead as it comes down; as it tends to close the face.

The backswing should be upright to reduce the quantity of grass that must be mowed through, and the downswing hard, with the left hand extremely firm. You won't get much distance here but you should be able to hit far enough to reach the proper side of the fairway.

An explosion shot as explained above is the best answer to deep grass around the greens, though it takes a little nerve. You should hit two or three inches behind the ball, just as if hitting from sand, and emphasize the follow-through because that is what gets the ball up. The explosion shot out of deep grass behaves the same way it would if hit from sand, landing softly and not rolling very far.