Phil Mickelson: Do these 2 things to hit your ball off a cart path perfectly every time

One of the things I love about Phil Mickelson’s newfound social media career, aside from all the lovable nonsense that he publishes on a near-daily basis, is how genuinely helpful he can be. He’s done so on his own feeds, and now, he’s doing so via the PGA Tour’s account.

This time around, he’s explaining how to solve one of the most difficult problems in golf: hitting off a cart path. Apparently, there are two things you need to do…

RELATED: GOLF Top 100 Teachers in America

1. DON’T Open The Clubface

Mickelson is a classic, unrepentant equipment nerd. He knows how his golf clubs are designed, and it’s why, when faced with the problem of how to hit a ball well off a cart path, his first suggestion is an equipment-related tip: Don’t open the clubface. Why? Because on the cart path, same as if you were on a hardpan fairway, the club doesn’t have the ability to nestle down into the grass. So when you’re opening the clubface, you’re not just adding more bounce to the club, you’re also exposing all that bounce to the ball, increasing your chances of catching it thin.

2. Add 5 yards

The second and relatively simple tip is acknowledging that your ball is going to go about five yards longer. Part of that is because your clubface isn’t open, but the other, more important reason is because you’re not hitting off turf. You’re hitting off a hard surface, which means the club is going to come in shallower and with nothing to slow it down, which will send the ball traveling slightly further.

To receive GOLF’s all-new newsletters, subscribe for free here.