The old saying is “Drive for Show, Putt for Dough,” however, with so many of the top ranked players in the world ranked very high in strokes gained off the tee, it is apparent that Driving is also how they make the dough. Hopefully many of you were able to the see the incredible golf last weekend on display with Aussie, Cameron Smith, edging out the best player in the world, Jon Rahm, by one stroke. So, how did he do it?
28 year old, Cameron Smith, has had a solid PGA Tour career to date with last weekend being his fourth victory. Statistically, Cameron has been a good iron player but his driving has ranked anywhere from 119th to 158th on tour over the last six years according to an article by Nick Piatowski on Golf.com. This meant that Cameron knew at the end of last season he had some work to do.
Now you may be thinking he must have made a drastic change to his technique, his equipment, or found some mental secret to unlock better driving. None of those are the case, and, in fact, Cameron did something so simple that it speaks to why so many struggle to improve. Cameron simply decided to spend more time in practice hitting drivers. When he reviewed his practice sessions he realized that he was hitting plenty of iron shots but not nearly enough drivers and his strengths and weaknesses reflected that. This is why having a balanced practice plan to execute on a weekly basis is so important.
So how does this story end? Last week Cameron ranked first in the field in strokes gained off the tee and set a 72 hole PGA Tour scoring record of 34 under par. All that by adding 10-15 minutes of driver practice each day. Maybe the answers are simpler than we think!
Practice Smart!
Photo courtesy of as.com
