Stuck with a loose lie? Top teacher shares tips for a quick recovery

There are all sorts of different lies in golf, but a common one that mid-handicappers often come across is a loose lie — which is when your ball rolls through the fairway and sits on loose objects like pinestraw, leaves or general items near trees.

While there are much trickier lies to deal with — like a plugged lie from anywhere on the golf course — a loose lie can be just as difficult if you don’t know what you’re doing.

So how can you quickly recover from this type of lie and get back into safety? In the video below (provided by Titleist’s YouTube), GOLF Top 100 Teacher Jason Baile details the changes you must make to see success. Check out his tips and start conquering these situations.

Do this to recover from a tricky loose lie

As mentioned above, a loose lie can be tricky for a number of different reasons. The ball can be sitting up a bit and the surface beneath it will (naturally) be loose — which can make it hard to find the low point of the club — so this type of shot can either be thinned or chunked without making the right adjustments.

Before thinking about anything else, Baile says it’s important to use a nice wide base in your setup, then focus on ball position and club selection.

“In a loose situation, one of the things I want to do is make sure I build a very stable stance,” he says. “So my stance is going to get a little wider than normal, I’m going to play the ball a little further forward than normal — kind of up near the logo [on my shirt] — and I’m going to use more golf club.”

Next, Baile describes a common mishit from a loose lie, which is topping it due to a steeper angle of attack.

“The tendency here is, if I hit down too much, the ball’s going to hit closer to the top of the face and won’t go anywhere,” he says. “So I actually want to set up a little bit more like a fairway wood, where I almost have this broad bottom to the swing, and it’s almost a sweep to the ball. That’ll ensure that the ball gets up in the air a little bit.”

Baile then hits his shot, executing a perfect, sweeping draw that lands on the left side of the putting surface. He then recaps the three tips for hitting this shot to perfection.

“So we got a loose situation, we built a stable bottom, slid the ball up a little bit, made sure we were nice and smooth on the way through to allow the loft of the club to get the ball in the air,” he says.

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Nick Dimengo

Golf.com Editor