“The ardent golfer would play Mount Everest if somebody put a flagstick on top.” – Pete Dye
By Ian Hardie
A while back I happened to catch a little bit of PGA Tour golf on television
Not too much of course – as I’ve written about before
The situation on the screen was that Phil Mickelson had attempted to hit the green on a par 5
With his second shot using a 3 wood
From about 290 yards away of course
The result of the shot was that he ended up in some rough to the left of the green
Which was I assume
The first time that had ever happened to him
Well actually, I know it wasn’t
It was just a normal day for the golfer they call ‘Phil the thrill’
Love him or hate him
You have to say he is simply one of the best shot makers of all time
And definitely exciting to watch when he’s playing well
Personally I enjoy watching him play
Most of the time
His ability to manufacture shots from places that most golfers
Would be lucky to chip out from
Is both exciting and inspiring
But I can’t help thinking he would have won many more times than he has
By playing the percentage shot on the odd hole
A little more often
However, that’s simply not Phil’s style
He plays golf because he likes hitting the absolute best shot he can
On every hole, regardless of the situation or what is at stake
Which means that every once in a while he makes the odd big score on a hole
That could have been conservatively played half a dozen different ways
To make a par on, then move on
It’s when I find I have to look away
As it’s not fun watching Phil make double, triple or whatever
Then go on to lose the tournament
Anyway back to his shot in the left rough
The reason I wanted to write about it
Is that he did something before he hit it
That good golfers do instinctively
But most golfers have no idea about
He wandered around the area
Looking at the rough until he found a spot about 6 yards away from his ball
Which is where he took his practice swings
Why is that something to write about?
Most golfers if they found themselves in this situation would simply take their practice swing
Within a yard or so of where their ball lay
In fact a lot take their practice swings far too close to the ball
But that’s a subject for another day
The reason on this occasion that Phil went the distance he did
Was that the rough all around where his ball was lying
Had been mostly trampled down by the gallery
Except for the patch where his ball was
Which was quite lush
So he was attempting to find a patch of rough
That in his opinion looked exactly the same as the one his ball was in
To allow him to practice swing in that patch of rough
So that he would get the feeling of the shot he was about to hit
To be as close as possible to what was going to happen when he hit his shot
Makes sense – doesn’t it?
After all, making a few practice swings over rough that has been trampled down
Which will offer little resistance to the club head
Then trying to hit the shot out of a lush patch of rough
Which will almost certainly provide some resistance as he played the shot
Just invites a poor result
So next time you are faced with a tricky shot out of the rough
Or off something else that’s a bit different from usual
Like pine needles, sand or even a bare patch
Make the effort to look around and find a similar patch
That you can get the feel for your shot on
And practice swing there
By the way Phil produced an excellent guide to the short game some time ago
Which I highly recommend getting if you don’t have it
It’s called “Phil Mickelson – Secrets of the short game”
You can grab a DVD version here (which is what I have) or the printed book version here
Play well
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