The 20-yard rough rule

A few weeks ago we put out a call for questions on our YouTube channel, and we got some great ones.

One of my favorite ones was about the fairway vs. rough distance tradeoff. AKA, when is it better to be longer in the rough, compared to shorter in the fairway.

The truth is that it does depend slightly. Assuming normal-ish rough, missing the fairway is less of a penalty the further away you are from the green. It's also less of a penalty for higher handicaps.

But all things equal, assuming the rough is a 20 yard penalty is a good rule of thumb.

So, a drive that goes 250 yards into the rough is the same as one that goes 230 yards into the fairway.

But if that same drive goes 260 yards into the rough, you're coming out ahead compared to that 230 yard fairway drive.

It was one of the many great questions I got from our Golf Digest readers, watchers and listeners. You can dive into others right here...

The straight-arm myth, an anti-yip grip, and 14 answers to make you a smarter golfer

By Luke Kerr-Dineen

What You Need to Know

Off the tee, we're worried about missing left or right. But when we have a wedge in our hands, the miss pattern flips.

Misses long or short of your intended target are almost twice as big on average as left or right misses. From 100 yards, a five handicap misses to 12 yards long or short of their intended target on average, but just five yards left or right of it.

It's something you need to strategize for when you have a wedge in your hands.

The lesson: Don't fret about left-or-right misses. Instead, look for lanes on the green that will give you room for your long and short misses.

What's the first thing you should do during your warmup?  Well, if you want a true pro-style warm-up, you should probably hit the gym first to do an hour of active stretching and light lifting. But if you're skipping straight to the range, start with five shots that average about 95 yards.

That's what data from tour players' warm-up sessions reveals.

Only a handful of players start with shots either short or long of that number. 95-ish yards seems to be the sweet spot: A three-quarter style shot that is long enough to get the body moving, but still easy enough that you can focus on making crisp contact above all else.

My colleague Alex Myers has been doing great work on his game and golf swing in recent months. He's gotten longer and improved his putting as he chases a scratch handicap.

Then, things went terribly wrong.

Alex started hitting some really terrible shots. When he looked under the hood, he found his golf swing had gotten really steep—the club shaft was too vertical on the downswing, as you can see below. It brought the hosel into play and was the cause of his terrible shots. 

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