TODAYSGOLFER.CO.UK ISSUE 367 73anything for granted though – if you do,
you’re history.
“Sure, I’m aware of the increased
expectations now; though after my third in
South Africa, people were telling me I was
going to win this week, or that week. It
comes with the territory and you’ve got to
deal with it. I’ve just gone out there doing
what I needed to do in the hope that things
would fall into place at the right times.”
And, sure enough, the pieces have slotted
together – nowhere more so than at the
European Open, where he triumphed in a
play-off against defending champion
Alexander Levy. “It was nice to go up against
one of best golfers in Europe who’s obviously
known for being aggressive. It was especially
nice to go down those play-off holes and, to
be fair, it was quite fun. I wasn’t as nervous
as I thought I’d be.
“We didn’t get back to the hotel until about
nine and me and my caddie suddenly
thought ‘what’s just happened?’ We got
room service, had a couple of beers and then
fell asleep. I’d missed my flight back home,
which meant I had to get up the nextmorning at half four to get the return flight.
At least I bought myself a new house in
Corsham with the proceeds.”
The victory also earned him a place in the
US PGA, his first event in America, and he
took full advantage as he emerged top Brit –
and second European – after closing with a
68 to finish -1 in tied 12th and four shots
clear of the other JS.
“It was a pretty unreal week and even now
I’ve still got to pinch myself about what
happened. It was probably the best golf I’ve
played. The whole week was awesome from 2012 Danny Willett
(BMW International
Open) Celebrated
three other European
Tour wins plus, of
course, the 2016
Masters.
2013 Tommy
Fleetwood(Johnnie
Walker Championship)
Has won twice this
year and long-time
leader of the Race to
Dubai standings.2014 Jason Day
(WGC-Accenture
Match Play) The
Aussie has now won 10
times on the PGA Tour,
including the 2015 US
PGA Championship.2014 Brooks Koepka
(Turkish Airlines
Open) Made his Ryder
Cup debut at Hazeltine
and an impressive
winner of this year’s
US Open.2015 Andy Sullivan
(South African Open)
Has added two more
European Tour wins
and played in his first
Ryder Cup at Hazeltine
last year.2017 Jon Rahm(Irish
Open) The Spaniard
has shot up to No.5 in
the world this year and
is set to make his
Ryder Cup bow in
Paris next year.1
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of bunkers that may come into play if
you use your driver. Nothing worse than
hitting the best drive of the day only to
reach a fairway bunker. Would a fairway
wood or rescue lay up short of the
hazards?3
If you are struggling to hit fairways –
and the majority qho do suffer with
a slice – a simple short term solution is
to use more loft. Try changing your driver
to a higher loft version. By adding loft it
will close the face of your driver making
it easier to hit a straighter flight. You
could even sacrifice a few yards and go
for the 3-wood. The more loft and
shorter shaft make it easier to hit. You
never know, this shortened club may
even see you hitting the sweet spot a
little more often and hitting it further
down the fairway.DRIVING ACCURACY
My driving accuracy has definitely
improved; it’s now a strength. I hit f
drivers and hit a lot of fairways and
got to take advantage of that. The game
has changed a lot over the past 10-15 years
and the stats show that the further you hit
it, the better usually.
For me, it’s all about sequencing. At the
start of the year I was a bit out of sync – it
wasn’t very consistent – but now we’ve got
the hips and legs working better. I’m also
sticking to a one shot shape – very neutral.
I’ve also worked on clearing the hips out of
the way more quickly, which gets
everything into the right slot better. We
needed to improve my left hip to enable me
to get that movement to get it cleared and
out of the way.
On a tight hole, it’s a good idea to stick to a
one shot shape. My go-to shot to find the
middle of the fairway is a little fade.
Fairways per rnd: 9.4
%: 67.2
Fairways hit: 751
Fairways played: 1118
Stats rounds: 80PLAY THE JORDAN SMITH WAY