When I stopped worrying so much about swing mechanics and focused on seeing shots and then creating what I saw, I was able to play the way I knew I was capable of playing – including much more confidently with my driv- ing. In my victory at the US Open last year at Los Angeles Country Club, I was second in strokes gained off the tee. Fast forward to defending my Open title at Pinehurst No 2 (June 13-16), I’m concentrating on controlling my tee shots even more, really reducing the dispersion of drives and adjusting my strategy from hole to hole. I’ll get into the details of that in a bit, especially knowing you can’t just swing away on a spacious but racy US Open course like Pinehurst. First, I want to share an observation or two about what I see when amateurs step on the tee. Perhaps you do your diligence, but with most ams, I don’t see a lot of thought given to what the hole calls for. They pretty much make the same driver swing from hole to hole and try to put the ball somewhere in the fairway – or at least advance it far enough that it’s not a totally wasted shot. The second thing I notice is that there’s little thought given to the ball’s start line or where it should finish. It’s like robo-golf: Grab the driver, walk up to the tee, peg one and swing away. Hopefully after you read what goes through my mind as I stand on any par 4 or par 5, you’ll be a little more attentive to what you should do. If you can put yourself in decent position in the fairway, or even make your misses smaller, you’re going to make more pars and avoid big mistakes. OK, with the pep talk out of the way, here are my three go-to drives – and what I do when none of them are truly the best option. MY SQUEEZE CUT A lot of the time I turn to a drive my caddie, John Ellis, and I call a squeeze cut. It puts more emphasis on accuracy than distance, but I’m still getting it out there a good way – like 300 yards or more. It’s the best of both worlds. The ball takes off on a medium tra- jectory, which keeps it from ballooning, and it moves a little left to right, which is my usual flight. In fact, if you see me draw the ball with a driver, it was probably an accident. To produce the squeeze cut, I tee the
POWER FADE ‘If you see me draw a ball with a driver, it was probably an accident.’ – Clark
LAST YEAR WAS A BREAKTHROUGH YEAR FOR ME IN MORE WAYS THAN ONE.
38 GOLF DIGEST SOUTH AFRICA
JUNE 2024
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