Playing in wet conditions

[badbeatj]

I am usually pretty confident in my irons but I seem to struggle a lot when the ground is fairy wet or muddy. I am used to hitting down on the ball and pinching the ball off the turf and my club head. However, I feel that during wet conditions, the ground is either too soft or wet and I feel like I chunk the ball a lot. What I mean is I end up taking a huge divot when I normally don't. basically I mishit a lot more and those mishits are killer because the ball only travels like 50-80 yards. I guess you could compare a dry day to hitting/practicing on astroturf and the wet day as hitting off real grass. Do people change their swing when the ground is fairly wet? Should I be scooping the ball a little more rather than hitting down on it?
Any suggestions or tips would be great

Thanks

[JSwiney10]

Anytime i play in the early morning hours, there is a thin dew on the ground so i know where you're comming from. I usually play my ball slightly farther forward than usual with my irons to avoid taking massive divots, other than that, i play as usual. Also, wet greens will slow ur put down so remember to put a lil extra on your putts. It is also a pet peeve of mine to always have a dry ball and dry club head, just a habit.

[Smarf]

Anytime i play in the early morning hours, there is a thin dew on the ground so i know where you're comming from. I usually play my ball slightly farther forward than usual with my irons to avoid taking massive divots, other than that, i play as usual. Also, wet greens will slow ur put down so remember to put a lil extra on your putts. It is also a pet peeve of mine to always have a dry ball and dry club head, just a habit.

My group always gets 7:45 to 8:15am tee times and the grounds are still covered in dew. I HATE having to wipe grass blades off the clubs and ball after every shot. Luckily this new course we go to has a club and ball cleaner attached to the cart, so it's alot less time consuming.

[Zeph]

If you are chunking the ball, you are hitting it fat. You should have not problem hitting the same shot from dry grass on wet grass. If you strike the ball first, the ground it sits on won't make much of a difference. The ball isn't pinched between the club and ground, though that is a good visual image to think of.

On dry grass, the ball sits more up, so it's easier to get under the ball, hitting it high on the clubface and still getting a good shot. When the grass is wet and the ball sitting low, this same shot can dig into the ground and you'll hit it fat.

I can't say for sure, but I'm betting you are scooping a little and this give you trouble when it's wet. I do know that the ball comes off just as well from wet as dry grass. Imagine a tee shot with an iron and the ball tee'd up a bit. The ball will take off the millisecond the club hits it. It won't drop to the ground before it takes off. This is the exact same thing that happen when hitting off the ground. You hit the ball first and the ball climb a bit up the clubface then fly away. What the club does after is irrelevant to the club. Be that taking a divot, brushing up some grass or just hitting air when hitting off a tee.

You can test it by putting a tee down, behind, further from your body, lined up with the back of the ball. After your shot, look at where the divot starts. Try this on both wet and dry ground, you'll quickly see if you hit the ground or ball first.
- | <--- Tee
O <--- Ball

[SpringBokVol]

I played a course today that had 3 days of hard rain and we were the 7:08 tee time. Let me tell you something...it made a difference.

I had to take and extra club on every shot from the fairway - figured it out after 3 holes of coming up short.

Had to putt harder than ever, which really points out my flaws in the putting stroke.

Also, an inconvenience was that it was cart path only. So you had to take a bunch of clubs, a towel and you could never find a true distance.

It was a bad day, but still a day on the golf course. I will however know better for the next wet round I play.

[Zeph]

Was it raining while you were playing?

Of course putting is affected since the ball is rolling on the ground.

[fredloves2golf]

After days of rain and playing in almost muddy conditions (on some areas of the course), I'll have a tendency to hit the ball heavy.

What I try to remember to do is grip down a little bit. For me, I notice that in the wetter areas, my body (all 230 lbs of it) presses down into the turf during the swing, so I compensate for that.

[Zeph]

Don't know what you mean by heavy, but if you're talking about fat, I agree. Wet turf makes it harder to get under the ball. If you don't hit it perfectly, it won't come off as good as from dry turf.

There are nothin however that should prevent a ball hit off wet grass to travel any less distance than one hit off dry grass. If you play when it's actually raining, the ball will obviously travel shorter because of the rain drops it will hit while flying. Wind is also often present when it rains, which slows down the ball even more.

But other than that, wet ground makes no difference to a perfectly struck ball.

[SpringBokVol]

Was it raining while you were playing?

Yes. On and off and then it poured for the last 3 holes. My front nine was pretty good. Right on par for me, but the back nine was where the conditions really played a factor.