Myth Versus Fact: You Should Hit Down On The Ball In Thick Rough

The U.S. Open is upon us as the 125th edition returns to Oakmont Country Club just outside of Pittsburgh for a record 10th time.

U.S. Opens are synonymous with lightning-fast greens and high scores but thick (and penal) rough might be the biggest staple of America’s national open. 

I had a few questions about how these players handle it.

What’s the preparation like? What is the right attitude to take?

And, above all else, how do you hit out of the rough? Is there one tactic you should take?

Golfers are usually taught to chop down on the ball, getting very steep. Is that what the pros do?

I wanted to know whether it’s a myth or fact that steeply attacking the ball is the best way to extract yourself from thick rough.

The golden rule of thick rough: Don’t bite off more than you can chew 

Let’s start here.

After speaking to a few U.S. Open players, one of the first things I learned is that the last thing you want is to be overly aggressive from thick rough.

Safety first.

Dustin Johnson won his first major here in the 2016 U.S. Open and he takes a very conservative approach towards the rough. 

“The rough at Oakmont, if you drive it in there, you just need to tell yourself that the best play is to chip it out and don’t get aggressive,” Johnson told MGS in an interview. “If you miss a fairway, you’ll need to wedge it close and make par that way.”

During crucial practice rounds when the entire field is cramming hard for this intense examination, Johnson intentionally places some balls in the rough.

“On the Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday, it’s a lot of time during my practice round where I’m dropping iron shots and chip shots in the rough and trying to get a feel for how the ball will come out,” Johnson said. 

The rough is expected to be thick this week but Johnson also knows there are no hard-and-fast rules on what kind of lie you will get.

“Reading the lie will be important for sure. All your shots are going to come out differently, so the more practice the better.”

That brings us to our big question: Should you hit down on the ball?

The answer: Sometimes, but not always.

Take the advice from five-time U.S. Open participant Brendan Steele. He says you need to be diligent about adjusting your angle of attack and ball position depending on the lie you draw.

That means understanding your lie and how to get out of it properly. Even when the rough is five inches long, like it is at Oakmont, the ball is not always settling at the bottom of the grass.

And depending on the lie, it’s not a one-size-fits-all approach.

“The thick rough around the greens is really tricky when you prep for a U.S. Open so I think it’s important that you read the lie well,” Steele said. “Sometimes the ball sits up and, in that case, you have to be a little more level and almost hit up on the ball.”

Interesting. If the ball is perched up at all, being too steep can actually be a detriment. That’s because the ball can be hit too high on the face, resulting in poor contact.

Taking more of a driver swing where you hit up on the ball can negate that.

So keep things level—and make sure not to ground your club too much behind the ball because that can easily result in the ball moving.

When the ball does sit down and gets into a place where you can barely see it, that is when you will want to be steeper coming into the ball.

“At that stage, you can’t really get it out (too far),” Steele said. “So then you’ve got to put it way forward in your stance and get way steeper and use a lot of acceleration and the goal is to get under it and get it to pop straight up. So reading lies is critical and understanding what that lie means and how you have to distribute your setup, your weight and how you attack the shot.”

So what should I do out of the rough?

After talking to a few players, here is what I learned.

The first step is to assess your lie.

Is it sitting up? In that case, you will want to make a shallower angle of attack into the ball, almost coming up as the club approaches, while playing the ball more in the middle of your stance. And you will have the ability to choose a lower-lofted club given the lack of resistance with the grass.

It’s important to also remember that the ball tends to go a little farther in this case (a flyer lie) so it’s often necessary to club down.

Think like you are almost sweeping or “picking” the ball off the lie without making much of a divot. You don’t want to hit down on the ball too much because that will create more unpredictability with contact and spin.

Is it sitting down? Then you will want to be steeper into the ball. And you will likely need a wedge or a higher-lofted club to produce lift.

Playing the ball higher up in your stance will help with adding some loft.

At that point, your main concern is getting back in play or limiting damage.

In any case, it’s all about attitude

Harold Varner is not playing this week but he thinks that attitude is just as important as the way you hit the ball out of the rough in one’s U.S. Open prep.

“I say have fun with it if you can because you know that everyone’s going to deal with it. I’m the guy that always thinks I can get it on the green but that’s my caddie’s job to talk some sense into me.”

Most of us don’t have a caddie so the lesson is to be realistic with your expectations. If you need to take a higher-lofted club for safety, do it.

One of the guys competing this week who’s had some sneaky good success in the U.S. Open is Patrick Reed. The 34-year-old boasts five career top 20s in the U.S. Open including a fourth-place finish in 2018 when he briefly shared the lead in the final round.

The 2018 Masters champion likes to keep his decision-making open-ended when it comes to Oakmont’s rough.

“It is all situational when you get in the rough and also when you practice from the rough. You need to see if you can either get a good club on it or if you’re going to have to take your medicine and lay up with a wedge.”

Reed believes having the right mindset when you start your day is critical for success at a U.S. Open at Oakmont.

“The biggest key is you need to have the attitude where you expect the course to play hard, you expect the rough to be really tough to deal with. Oakmont is going to be a good test.”

Xander Schauffele knows all about major championship success. He won at Valhalla for his first major at last year’s PGA Championship and two months later won at Royal Troon without having played either course until championship week. Schauffele is looking to build on that trend this week.

So what’s his focus of preparation on a major course he doesn’t know?

“Work on everything. You want to be hitting the ball solidly and moving it correctly but you also want to be chipping it really nice out of thicker rough and that’s hard to find at home. I think for a lot of guys, you’ve got to acclimate to the green speeds or to chipping in thicker rough pretty quickly.”

And it makes sense why there’s a hyper focus on those two skills when it’s not exactly easy to simulate them at a pro’s home club.

“Usually at home, we’re in carts we’re whipping around playing 18 or 36 holes on courses that we know really well,” Schauffele said. “So we need to try and get in that mindset but I think for the most part, short-game stuff is where you try to acclimate to a northeast course or a big major championship setup.”

Watch what the pros do at Oakmont. We’ll see them in the rough a lot this week.

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