Tiger Will Avoid the Driver at Turnberry

As the saying goes, "there are many ways to skin a cat." There is the approach Tiger Woods took at his first Open Championship at St. Andrews in 2000, when he blitzed the field with precise tee shots that always seemed to find their way closer and closer to greens. Much of the same happened in 2005 at St. Andrews, when Woods again won at the Old Course.

The year after, however, Woods tossed the driver aside, deciding that at Hoylake, irons were the better play off a course that was so dried out; signs were hung to keep spectators from tossing cigarette butts on the grass because it might induce a course-clearing brush fire. Woods, who usually cultivates interest from his power and beautiful golf swing, might actually be at his best when he's thinking his way around a golf course. And now Woods is saying that this week at Turnberry, the driver won't get much use.

"I think it's the same," Woods said Tuesday, comparing Liverpool and Turnberry. "You have to be committed to either putting the ball short of the bunkers or carrying them or skirting past them. You have to make sure you really know what you're doing, especially with the cross winds in some of these fairways. The last three champions here [Tom Watson '77, Greg Norman '86, Nick Price '94] are some of the best ballstrikers."

Woods' disciplined approach to Hoylake was one of masterful restraint, hitting only one driver all week at Royal Liverpool on his way to his third Claret Jug. Someone not familiar with links golf might not comprehend how easy it is for a tee shot to get away from you, but with hard ground that will make the ball roll, a good drive could end up in a pot bunker that normally wouldn't come into play.

"At Hoylake, the game plan was to probably hit about four or five [drivers]," said Woods, who ended up hitting only one the entire week. He missed the fairway.

"As the ground got faster and faster and faster, my 2-iron and 3-wood were going over 300 yards," Woods said. "You get to a point where you can't really control how far the ball is going to go, so the driver, it didn't really utilize it much."

Tom Watson, who won here in 1977, believes Tiger's, "probably not going to hit more than two or three drivers a round," which seems to be about right as long as potential rain doesn't soften the grounds too much. To dominate links golf, you have to be aware of all your surroundings and understand that longer isn't always better. Nobody grasps things like this better than Tiger, who has been meticulous in his planning and seems to have already figured out how best to capture his 15th major. The game plan is there ... now just comes the execution.