How to Play Out of a Divot
After driving your best drive of the day, your ball is lying in someone else's divot!
This is a perfect lesson for you to remember about replacing your divots every time after hitting off the fairway. If your divot exploded, then the sand bottle off the cart is another option. If everyone repaired their own divots on the fairways and putting surfaces, we'd all score better throughout our rounds.
When hitting out of a divot, the worst thing you can do is attempt to scoop the ball out — the club head ends up getting ahead of your hands at impact. Doing so usually causes the ball to go everywhere but where you want it.
Scooping exposes the leading edge and leads to skulled shots or drop-kicks. It can give your wrist a real jolt, as well, so the first picture below shows what NOT to do when swinging from the divot.
What you need is a descending blow, and there are two ways to get it…
- Play the ball back slightly in your stance, and lean left, which sets up a steeper swing plane and a downward hit.
- Take one extra club, play the ball farther forward than you normally do and open your stance and the clubface slightly.
With this method, the ball will come out lower, so allow for some chase when it lands. Remember you must swing steep and be a little aggressive. The divot you're in now, should end up being a lot bigger when you're done.
This technique is tougher to execute, but allows you to hit the ball higher and stop it faster…
Swing across the ball from out to in, like you would for a bunker shot. You'll hit it high and stop it on the green. Try not to roll your wrists over on this type of shot because you'll end up smothering the club over the ball and it will be a shot lost from there.
To recap on posture, stance, grip and swing for the lie in the divot. The last photo shows a setup very much like the one you would use while not in the divot. Difference is – choose one more club and stand mostly on your left foot (front foot) before you make a steep swing.
Don't be concerned about a long, high finish – rather, finish with a swing out in front of you at about 3 or 4 o'clock. The ball will fly low so give it some room to run.
Remember one other tip… if your ball comes to rest on a chunk of grass from a divot, you are required to play it as it lies.
This completes How to Play Out of a Divot … look for my next article soon!
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a.k.a. Vanilla Gorilla
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