Stroke Saver: Tee It Higher In Wet Weather

During the summer months, I tee the ball pretty low to the ground, especially with irons. This is a great plan when I’m running a 3 iron out 220 yards off the tee and want a bit of roll out of it, but during the wetter months, everything seems to shorten up a bit and that 3 iron ends up well short of that. Fortunately, there’s an easy fix for this. When you hit your long irons or hybrids more like that oversized driver, the ball will carry more and roll less. Some call this catching it on the upswing, but I just call it teeing it higher.

The overall ball position won’t vary much from you standard long iron position. The ball may move slightly forward if you normally play it back, but overall, nothing will really change with your swing except for one key point, you’ll try to catch the ball after the low point of your swing. Normally with irons, I try to catch the ball just before the bottom of the swing. For my “higher ball flight” wet weather shots, I’ll try to let me swing bottom out and then clip the ball on the way back up. This is not a monumental change, but a minute one. If you move the ball too far forward, you will immediately see either a pull hook or a slice depending on the angle of the face at impact.

This is also a great shot to have in the bag for uphill par 3’s and shorter par 4’s that put a premium on high, accurate tee shots. The next time you make it to the range, try teeing the ball up about 1/4” higher than normal and moving it up in your stance about a ball or two and see if this shot works with your swing. The extra carry you get during these cold, wet, winter days may be enough to help you keep that even par round a reality during the winter.