How to hit a low shot?

[abraxas]

so for the past couple of rounds i found myself underneath a tree with overhanging branches. if you have about 20 feet height of clearance into the opening, how do you hit the ball to keep it low and rolling to maximize distance from that situation?

[sean_miller]

so for the past couple of rounds i found myself underneath a tree with overhanging branches. if you have about 20 feet height of clearance into the opening, how do you hit the ball to keep it low and rolling to maximize distance from that situation?

A long iron?

[kilbyman]

Less lofted club, shorten backswing, you can play the ball more towards your back foot.

[JML22]

Well it depends, how far are you trying to hit it?
do you need to stick the green? do you just want it back on the fairway?

[B-Con]

I get the lowest loft iron I can, put the ball a bit back in my stance, choke up on the club a bit, hit with my shoulders while minimizing my wrist activity, and accept that it's going to be a shorter than normal shot. If I can get the ball to go 120+ yards with about 13 feet (which seems to be the lowest level of branches for the trees I play under) of clearance for the first 30 feet of the ball's flight, I'm usually happy. If you have a very low-lofted club that you can hit in the situation, like a 3W, you may not even have to worry about the branches.

If you can, maybe you watch some of your shots at the range to see about how high they are 20 feet from where you hit it. For myself, I found a dirt patch about 25 feet from the pad next to a fence with a tree line on the exact opposite side, so I could hit balls and watch to see if they were above the tree line by the time they hit the dirt patch. Obviously it's going to be a decent about of guesstimating, but you can probably get a vague idea for which clubs and which swings give you which height.

[abraxas]

not necessarily to punch it back out which i can do to the left of the tree
but trying to advance it towards the flag as much as possible

when you say shorten backswing...
do you still hinge your wrists?
do you finish with a sort of pitch follow through with the club low?

[Travtex]

One of the rare shots I'm actually somewhat decent at (Lot of practice hitting out of the forest, haha). I take my 5 iron (22* loft... it's more like a 3.5 iron), put it back in my stance a bit, and do sort of a short-swing punch. I'm not sticking any greens with it, but it's not usually a shot where that's an option, anyway.

[westcyderydin]

learn to hit your 3, 4, 5, 6, and 7 irons with less than full swings. know how far you want to far you want to hit it, how low you have to keep it, and pick your club and hit it.

i hit a pretty money 7 iron from 100 yards... because i practice from the trees from time to time...