Golf Trouble Shots: It’s Time to Get Creative

By Wayne Hudler

Have you ever complained about how unfair the game of golf can be when faced with a bad lie? Thought that the golf gods had placed a curse on your game? Most of us have been there.

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Dean Shareski[/caption]

Bad Lies in Golf

Bad lies are just as much a part of the game as pars and birdies. It will do your golf game a world of good to concede the fact that you are not exempt from the occasional bad lie and figure out the best way to cope with them.

One thing for sure when you find yourself in a bad lie situation is that you’ve got to have both skill and imagination.

Every bad lie is a little different from anything you have ever dealt with before. There is more or less grass behind the ball, the sand is a bit wet, the tree limb is hanging lower, the wind is blowing differently and the pin is in a different location.

To achieve your desired result you must recognize and adjust for all of the variable that come into play. That is where my analytical mind is at its best. And that is why I am better at these kinds of shots than many of the guys I play with. That’s no brag, it’s a fact.

Creativity

Once the situation has been assessed properly the next step is to determine what type of shot the lie requires and how to flight the ball to land it on target. This is where you need to use your creative side. You’ll need to imagine the shot, how it will fly under that limb, over the lake or over the trap and onto the green close to the pin. The knack for using your imagination is something each golfer has to develop for themselves. I can’t teach that. Don’t know if anyone can.

Examples of Playing Trouble Shots Perfectly

You’ve seen countless examples of this while watching the pros play. Phil Mickelson‘s now famous shot from the woods with the ball lying on pine straw to the 13th green on Sunday during his 2010 Master’s win is one that quickly comes to my mind. Who else would have both the imagination and courage to attempt that shot?

Here is an other example. On the second playoff hole at the 2012 Masters, Bubba Watson plays one of the most remarkable shots I have ever seen. Bubba hit his drive way into the trees behind the gallery on the right and landed on pine straw. He visualized his shot, took out his wedge, and hit an impossible shot.

The ball flew under the over hanging limbs, then climbed as it reached the edge of the fairway, and then made an almost right turn and landed on the green. He then had the luxury of taking two putts for par to win his first Green Jacket.

“I had no idea where he was,” Oosthuizen said of the memorable shot. “Where I stood from, when the ball came out, it looked like a curve ball. Unbelievable shot. That shot he hit definitely won him the tournament.”

Skill

The other key element for applying creativity to your bad golf situations is skill. You need to know that you can handle the circumstances that makes this shot difficult. Skill comes from having the knowledge of the proper technique or adjustments to apply to the shot and lie combination you are now faced with to create the desired outcome and the confidence of having done it before either on the course or the practice range.

Skill is just what “How to Conquer Golf’s Trouble Shots” is all about. It can teach you the specific skills required to play the wide variety of escape shots you might face. Like finding your ball in a bad lie, when its windy or when your ball is found buried in a bunker. You need specialized skills to handle those golf situations. Skills you can learn when you read “How to Conquer Golf’s Trouble Shots”.

The next time you are facing one of those troublesome lies there will be no need to curse the golf gods. Just turn on your creative mind and fashion just the kind of escape shot you need. You’ll be proud and your scores will shrink.

You’ll run into all sorts of trouble on the course over time. Discover all the tricks to making the best of these bad situations here: How to Conquer Golf’s Trouble Shots

Article Source: Golf Trouble Shots – It’s Time to Get Creative

Trouble Shots DVD

There are countless different trouble shots that you could encounter in golf. However, there are some that are more common than others, like:

• Hitting from deep rough
• Hitting from a hard pan lie
• Hitting from uneven lies
• How to hit downwind
• How to hit into the wind

Actually, the above 5 trouble shots are all covered in Bobby Eldridge’s instructional DVD as well as 4 others. You will learn which club to use for every situation and the techniques to get back on the fairway or onto the green.