COMMUNITY

I play the ball slightly back in my stance and hit down on it.

By taking another one.

If it has not been filled with sand, I will take an extra club and put ball back in my stance and take a 75% swing. Alot of times the trajectory is pretty low, so dont get greedy with your aim. Try to shoot away from any hazards that a low shot may run to. If it has been filled with sand, I try to my normal swing and pretend it is not there. It doesnt always come out the way you want, but most of the time it flies just like it was on nice turf.

Thx guys... Ran into this problem today, and a routine par turned into a double bogey because I had no idea how to treat it.

Like a fairway trap with no lip. Descending blow with ball only contact and take an extra club and swing easy.

If that doesn't work... take a gimme.

I have always thought that a fairway divot should be treated as Ground Under Repair. That's technically what it is and should be entitled to a free drop. When, EVER, should a perfect shot down the fairway be a bad result?? I always hated this rule but you have to live with it. Just like slow play... but I digress.

Foot wedge

I've ranted about that before on here. If you're in the fairway and in a divot, you should get to move it. If you're in the rough though, I don't have as much sympathy.

Oh man, I was really tempted to do just that... But it was my SFGT round and the board is pretty close... But all of Ethans rants ran thru my head as soon as my ball hit the water.

Just for the sake of covering all the bases, you can also declare an unplayable lie. Depends on how deep the divot is, if you're in too deep to get at the ball it's a penalty stroke anyway.

I had this happen to me today. I hit a perfect drive down the center of the fairway. I was 110 yards from the green with a back pin. the divot I was in was partially healed but had not been filled in with sand. That means the ball was sitting in the depression of an old divot. I always take more club and hit down with a firm grip. I don't get cute. I just aim for the center of the green. I got lucky today, hit it to 7 feet and made the putt for a birdie!

I got lucky because the green was steeply tilted from back to front which helped stop the ball. I did also get a good hit on the ball so it flew relatively normal. It wasn't a low screamer or anything like that. It had a a nice trajectory for a 9-iron that allowed the ball to react fairly normal.

Don't you just love it when you hit a trouble shot and it comes off perfectly? I did that a couple of times today.

Use a more up right swing plane and expect straight to fade trajectory.
As in any situation, think of how the club face would interact with the golf ball at impact.

Just like the first time you hit out of the bunker, practice a few times and you will get the clue.