How to Hit Golf Ball on a Bad Lie

Video Transcript

"Hi, Frank Ganley, PGA golf professional, here in Tampa, Florida at the Downs golf practice facility. The question I'm asked a lot is: "How do you hit the golf ball from a bad lie?" They see it on television, everybody describes the bad lie, but how do you hit it? Well, I'm going to show you the easiest way to do it. One of the rules of golf is you can't touch the golf ball. And unless this position here is marked with white paint distinguishing it as ground under repair, I must play the ball as it lies. So in order to do that, you can see that there's leaves all around, I can pick up...I can move anything that's around this ball that's not attached to the ground or growing or affixed, I can get these leaves out very carefully because I don't want to move that ball. I am trying to clear everything that's possible. It's almost like a game of pickup sticks. If I move anything and it causes the ball to move, it's deemed to have been my fault that the ball moved. Now, that's about as clear as I want to get it. Anything more than that would be dangerous. What I'm going to do is I'm going to place the ball care...or the club carefully behind the ball, and now, I'm going to make sure that when I hit the ball, I hit the ball coming really down at the ball so that I pinch it in that position and it just comes out. And this is how you do it. So let's recap it just a bit. But remember, each situation's just a little bit different. If you have any questions on how to hit the ball out of the bad lie like that, call me. I'm Frank Ganley, PGA golf professional, Tampa, Florida at the Downs golf practice facility. Have a great day."