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This week the Royal Golf Club's PGA Teaching Professional, Martin Robinson, gives tips on dealing with the rough

THE golf course here at the Royal Golf Club has undergone quite a change over the summer period, with the soaring temperatures and high humidity offering perfect conditions for enhancing the growth of the warm season grass.

This has meant that quite thick rough is now apparent in places not previously seen. Without altering your setup and/or technique, shots from the rough will cause you more problems than they need do.

For example, the ball is sitting down in thick rough at the side of the fairway. A common mistake made by players is to try to achieve more distance than the lie will allow and the result is for the club to become tangled in the rough as it strikes the ball causing a miss hit.

When deciding which club to use you must let the lie dictate your club selection - a more lofted club will produce a steeper angle of attack into the back of the ball, which is necessary to avoid the club getting tangled with the grass.

You can also make some adjustments to your technique from shots in thick rough in order to produce a cleaner strike. The ball can be moved slightly further back in your stance, and by using a bit more wrist hinge you will also be able to steepen the angle of attack and you will be able to squeeze the ball cleanly out of a difficult lie.

Another difficult situation is when you are greenside and a standard chip shot is made more difficult by the ball sitting down in thick rough. A normal chip shot technique won't do as it to will be hampered by the long grass.

The trick is to play it like a bunker shot but crucially to use quite a lazy rhythm and let the weight of the golf club do the work.

The difference between this technique and a normal chip shot is that the club face should be laid slightly more open, the backswing will be longer and have more wrist hinge, making the swing steeper. If played at a smooth tempo the ball will pop up and land softly on the green.