Tiger Woods had many strings to his bow during his time at the top of professional golf.
Woods possessed the full package, and his all-round brilliance was the reason he won 82 PGA Tour events, including 15 major championships.
However, perhaps one of the most under-appreciated aspects of Woods’ game was his ability to hit out of deep lies in the rough.
The 49-year-old’s power and explosive speed enabled him to extricate his ball from seriously bad lies throughout his career.
Woods was longer than most off the tee, a peerless ball-striker with his irons and nobody was as good as he was on the greens, especially from inside eight feet.
In fact, Woods’ ability to win so regularly whenever he was in contention was perhaps the most impressive thing about him as a golfer.
And the way in which he salvaged pars from terrible positions played a crucial role in that.
Tiger Woods’ solution when faced with buried lies in the rough
There was nobody better than Woods in his prime when it came to posting a good score while not playing his best golf.
Do you think Tiger Woods can win another PGA Tour event?
His driver did not always cooperate, meaning that he missed plenty of fairways throughout his career.
The fact that he won three US Opens proves just how good he was at playing out of the deep rough.
During an appearance on an instructional video for Golf Digest, Woods shared the way he tackles deep lies in the rough.
And interestingly, his tip revolved around taking his medicine when the lies he faces are particularly bad.
He said: “145 yards out here and it’s so interesting how different Bermuda can be. I’ve got a ball that’s buried in the rough and I have so much grass between the clubhead and the ball.
“In this lie, even though I have 145 yards out, I can’t get to the green.
“The ball is sitting so far down that I can’t physically generate enough speed to hit it 120 yards, if I get lucky.
“I have a bunker here between myself and the hole, so the spot I’m looking at with this lie is where is my miss going to be? Right is dead, I have no angle so I’m going to play short left.
“With a lie like this, I’m just playing short left of the green, trust my short game to get up and down and move on.
“I can’t get to the back of the golf ball so I’m just going to hit a little bit further behind it, put a lot of speed into it and hopefully steer it more towards the left.
“I’ve always had really tight hands on the golf club, so that doesn’t change. With a lie like this, yes, I will get a bit steeper on it.
“The ball will be a little bit further back and I’m just hitting straight down on top of it and just try and pop it up towards the left side, I’m not even worried about going at the flag.“
Why was Tiger Woods so good when playing out of the rough?
Woods clearly took his medicine when he needed to but there were plenty of times when he used brute force and his unmatched speed to get his ball on the green from truly awful lies.
His former caddie Steve Williams recently highlighted just how good Woods was out of the rough, when speaking on the Tee It Up Podcast.
“He was the best player out of the rough ever, without question. His ability to dig the ball out of not great lies and hit it approximately pin high was beyond belief.
“One of the greatest shots he ever hit was that shot at Pebble Beach out of the right hand side over the water and up the hill. There is no other player on the planet who would attempt it, let alone hit it on the green and make birdie.
“His ability to move the ball out of the rough. His strength and his club head speed, so he could hold the club square to target.
“When you are playing out of deep rough the club just hoods all the time, but his strength to get it out of the rough, there was not a lot written about that but it was something amazing.”
It speaks volumes that Woods was that good when faced with horrendous lies, but his main tip regarding how to tackle shots from the rough was to bite the bullet and ensure that you do not compound your mistakes.
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