Talk about frustrating. You just hit a great shot into a green only to watch it roll out and stop up against the collar of rough that borders the fringe. Your ball has a clear path to the hole, but the back of it is nestled against tall grass, which will impede your swing. What do you do? The common mistake is attempting any shot where you just try to swing through the thick grass to strike the ball. It’s too dicey a situation, one that requires a high degree of touch—so stop thinking about chipping or making a standard putting stroke. You’ll either top it or skull it. Let me show you a method that will give you a much better chance of getting up and down. The goal is to interact with as little grass as possible as you swing. Some golfers will try to blade a wedge, meaning strike the ball at its equator with the club’s leading edge and make it roll like a putt. That shot is fine but requires practice. A simpler way is to stick with your putter, but you need to steepen the angle of your club’s path into the ball. A few adjustments at setup will help. Stand with your feet close together and play the ball in line with your back foot. Then, lean the shaft slightly toward the target and tilt your front shoulder down a bit (below).

Again, these setup changes will help you catch more ball than grass. Because you’re essentially delofting your impact conditions, the ball is going to come off of the club a lot hotter than normal, so factor that into the length of your stroke. Although this can be a personal preference for how you regulate distance, it might be helpful to picture the hole closer than it really is. The common fault I see during the swing is too much lower-body activity. You’re putting a premium on the quality of contact, so any extraneous movement will compromise that. To help you get a feel for a quiet lower body, practice making strokes with your eyes closed and try to really ingrain that feel of staying still with your body (below). It might be a little unnerving, but it automatically locks you down so you are sure to hit the ball solidly.

I can’t stress enough how important it is that you get as much ball as you can, avoiding the instinct to power through the long grass. The setup keys and a quiet body during the stroke will do wonders. Hopefully your karma on this shot will be better than it was on the last one.

David Armitage is director of instruction at the Shell Bay Club in Hallandale Beach, Fla.

This article was originally published on golfdigest.com