\u201cNow that was a slice,\u201d he said. \u201cBut it looked like an intentional slice.\u201d<\/p>\n
RELATED: The two shots that saved Wyndham Clark on final day at Shinnecock<\/a><\/p>\n You could see it in 2004, too. I think of Retief Goosen\u2019s tee-shot into the par-3 11th. A high, floaty approach that was one of the best on the hole all day. You could pick any number of shots from Brooks Koepka\u2019s win in 2018 to see the same thing.<\/p>\n And it was all over the place during Wyndham Clark\u2019s win in 2026.<\/p>\n When most of us envision winning the US Open as kids, we picture perfection. The best player in the field, mightily holding off everybody else. Bombed drives, lasered irons; putts with sumptuous speed dropping into the middle of the hole.<\/p>\n The reality is something different.<\/p>\n \u201cI played some ugly golf today,\u201d Clark said in his winner\u2019s interview. \u201cI was little too cutty today, but I had to play it.\u201d<\/p>\n You don\u2019t win US Opens, you survive US Opens. And that means knowing how to bail out. To play ugly \u2013 but predictable \u2013 golf. And at Shinnecock, a big, bunty, loopy slice-cut seems to be a strangely good fit. Players land on it as an ugly-but-works solution because it ticks a bunch of important boxes, like:<\/p>\n \u2022 It\u2019s easy to hit Few people dream of carving big slices down iconic holes en route to winning the US Open. But if you really want to win one, putting that dream aside and plugging into reality is what it takes.<\/p>\n Photo: Cliff Hawkins<\/p>\n 1. A minimalist approach can lead to sloppiness<\/p>\n It\u2019s interesting that Wyndham Clark and runner-up Sam Burns have moved in opposite directions with their golf swings, generally speaking.<\/p>\n Clark won his first US Open without a coach, espousing a minimalist philosophy of clubface control above all else. In the next two years his swing got out of balance. Too long, too much cup in his left wrist, too much lag and shaft lean, too much slide away from the target. The clubface is king, but when you don\u2019t focus on anything else, it all starts to fall apart.<\/p>\n Wyndham figured that out, which led to him joining up with his new coach Pat Coyner.<\/p>\n \u201cI was hitting balls one day and just asked him, like, \u2018Hey, what do you think?\u2019 He goes, \u2018Honestly, I look at a few things that how you\u2019re swinging in \u201923 and \u201922, and you\u2019re way longer, you\u2019re kind of cupped, your wrist isn\u2019t flat, X, Y and Z,’\u201d Clark says.<\/p>\n Now Clark\u2019s the guy doing the most intricate drills around.<\/p>\n And then, we have Burns\u2026<\/p>\n 2. But things get worse when you get too picky<\/p>\n On the other end of the spectrum was Sam Burns. Burns had ranked outside the top 120 in Strokes Gained: Approach in two of his previous three years heading into this PGA Tour season.<\/p>\n This season, he\u2019s in the top third on tour. Whereas Clark\u2019s ball-striking resurgence is the product of becoming more hands-on with his golf swing, Burns\u2019 comes courtesy of being more hands-off.<\/p>\n \u201cIn the past couple of years I had gotten really picky about stuff. Watching swings all the time; thinking of how I used to swing it. I got to the point where I went to my coach and said, \u2018Let\u2019s make this as simple as possible,’\u201d Burns says. \u201cNow, I just try to keep it in the rails and if it gets off a little bit I don\u2019t panic.\u201d<\/p>\n While the specifics of Clark and Burns\u2019 stories are different \u2013 opposite, in fact \u2013 the story itself is the same. The lesson is that a balanced approach to your golf swing is the best one.<\/p>\n The middle road, so often, is the one that takes you to better golf<\/p>\n 3. Sway gap matters, and you need it early<\/p>\n Sway gap is a new-age metric invented by Sportsbox AI<\/a> and its team of teacher consultants. It\u2019s pretty important for every kind of golfer, and the good news is that it\u2019s pretty easy to understand. It measures the difference between the middle of your chest and the middle of your hips. The more your hips are in front of your chest, the bigger your sway gap.<\/p>\n Draw players, like Rory McIlroy, tend to have a bigger sway gap, while faders like Scottie tend to have a smaller one \u2013 and each type of player can get screwed up if they\u2019re more like the other. But it\u2019s when you create that sway gap that\u2019s important and something I learned this week.<\/p>\n Photo: Cliff Hawkins<\/p>\n The goal is to create it early in your downswing, when you have time, rather than in the milliseconds before impact. This is true for both types of players, as Jeff Smith, coach to Davis Riley, Max Greyserman and others, explained to me on the US Open range.<\/p>\n \u201cYou want to create a bigger sway gap early in your downswing,\u201d Smith explained. \u201cA lot of amateurs don\u2019t create enough sway gap early, then try to create it late. The earlier you create it, the more you can rotate later in your swing. How well you can rotate in side bend is the mark of a good player.\u201d<\/p>\n 4. Keep your head level<\/p>\n Speaking of bends and turns in your golf swing, Michael Thorbjornsen is one of my favourite up-and-coming players in golf. He wasn\u2019t at the US Open, but his new coach, Sean Foley, was.<\/p>\n Foley taught me something interesting: that Thorbjornsen\u2019s head moves more than six inches down towards the ball on the downswing. That leads to him vaulting himself up and back on the downswing, which can create timing issues and turn his stock draw a little loopy.<\/p>\n \u201cA lot of great players keep their head more level on the backswing, the up-and-down movement isn\u2019t severe,\u201d Foley explained. \u201cIt helps take pressure off their lower back in the long term\u2026 the more you go down, the more you have to come back up, and the more pressure that puts on your lumbar spine.\u201d<\/p>\n 5. Sometimes the best practice round is no practice round<\/p>\n Last Monday a lot of players \u2013 including Clark \u2013 didn\u2019t play practice rounds. Why? Because the wind was moving in the opposite direction than it usually does. I found that interesting. Is it better to know the course inside and out, to be comfortable with anything? Or is it best to rest when you can and prepare specifically? I don\u2019t know but from the moment I learned it, I\u2019ve been thinking about it.<\/p>\n 6. The goal is to test every club in your bag<\/p>\n Lou Riccio is a Columbia University professor and golf statistics expert who has done work for the USGA for decades. Back when he started, any data he analysed he had to collect himself. Some of that data involved asking pros what club they hit on every hole. A long-stated USGA goal has been to test players hitting every club in their bag.<\/p>\n \u201cWhat do we endeavour to do? It\u2019s about, yes, getting every club in the bag dirty. We want the players to examine every part of their game. We want them to get all 15 clubs in their bag dirty,\u201d said chief championships officer John Bodenhamer. \u201cThe 14 that they\u2019ll make a stroke with, and the one right here between their ears, the 15th club.\u201d<\/p>\n It\u2019s a fun way to think of it, and a difficult goal that stirs some debate, with rollback advocates saying it\u2019s near impossible in the modern era of distance. Is it still possible? I think so, but clearly it was the task facing Jack Nicklaus during his 1980 US Open, as you can see below.<\/p>\n With the wind howling all week, do you ride the wind? Or do you try to hit a shot against it, and fight it?<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s so tough,\u201d Burns explained after his first round. \u201cFor instance on the ninth hole [in my first round], I had 170 yards and the wind right-to-left. If I slice it up into the wind, I could hit it 150 yards. If I draw it, it could go 190.\u201d<\/p>\n It seems like it ultimately comes down to one thing: what gives you your best chances of holding the green? A good rule here is that if the green slopes in the opposite direction than the wind is blowing, then you can ride the wind. If it\u2019s not, then the ball won\u2019t hold, so you have to fight it.<\/p>\n Even if that means taking on a little extra risk, as Emiliano Grillo explained after carding the lowest third round of the championship: \u201cTo me that\u2019s hole dependent and distance dependent. If it\u2019s a short club like a 9-iron or pitching wedge and you need to draw it to hit it close, then you\u2019ll try it. But the shot I hit on 6 today felt suicidal, because I\u2019m hitting a 4-iron with a left pin, and I tried to hit a draw a little bit just to hold the wind a little bit; it just happened to work out perfectly.\u201d<\/p>\n 8. There\u2019s a \u2018don\u2019t-double\u2019 side of every hole<\/p>\n Ahead of the final round, the team at Arccos sent me an interesting breakdown of how amateur golfers who were lucky enough to play Shinnecock fared. Turns out the par-3 seventh doesn\u2019t discriminate. It was the fourth hardest hole for pros for the week, and it\u2019s the most difficult for amateurs. According to Arccos, amateur golfers average almost a full stroke over par on this hole and double-bogey the hole almost 30 percent of the time.<\/p>\n After his third round, I decided to ask James Nicholas how he\u2019d go about coaching an amateur to avoid a double there.<\/p>\n \u201cWell, anywhere right, especially that bunker on the right, is an auto-double,\u201d he said. \u201cJust bail out left, try to chip it anywhere on the green, then you\u2019re a two-putt away.\u201d<\/p>\n I went out to look at that auto-double spot and I can confirm, it\u2019s terrifying.<\/p>\n It was a good, basic reminder that there\u2019s always a bail-out side to a hole. And your path to avoiding double-bogeys depends on being on the right side of it.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n 9. Open-ended questions lead to the best answers<\/p>\n Kevin Van Valkenburg of the Fried Egg is a mentor to many golf media members. He was nice to me the moment my career started, which he probably doesn\u2019t even remember because that\u2019s just how he is normally. But I remember, because in those early days in sports journalism, it felt anything but normal.<\/p>\n Walking back from the interview area on Friday, KVV shared some great advice about the art of asking \u201cneutral, open-ended questions\u201d.<\/p>\n A bad habit in journalism, and one I often fall into myself, is to lead your subjects into a kind of multiple choice answer:<\/p>\n Why do you do X? Is it for A or B reason? Or maybe C?<\/p>\n Having the confidence to leave the answer open, and let the question hang there, is a little scarier than it sounds. You have to fight the fear of striking out on getting an answer to the question. You also have to resist the human, social urge to make the person across from you feel comfortable. But that\u2019s what asking a neutral, open-ended question entails.<\/p>\n A day later I found myself chatting with Viktor Hovland on the range. Chatting is the wrong word. In some ways it was less conversational than normal. There were more pauses to think between questions. But that\u2019s what gleaning insight looks like. And I\u2019m glad I did, because Hovland was dispensing some real wisdom<\/a> from the empty range on Saturday afternoon.<\/p>\n Try it yourself. No matter who is in front of you, you\u2019ll learn a lot more that way.<\/p>\n
\u2022 They have relative control over it
\u2022 They know mishits are going to pop up then fall down, not run away
\u2022 They know which direction it\u2019s going
\u2022 They know it\u2019ll give them lots of spin
\u2022 They know it\u2019ll fly high and land soft<\/p>\n![\"2282677363\"\/](\"https:\/\/golfdigest.sports.sndimg.com\/content\/dam\/images\/golfdigest\/fullset\/2022\/GettyImages-2282677363.jpg.rend.hgtvcom.966.644.suffix\/1782135924503.jpeg\")
<\/p>\n![\"2282660302\"\/](\"https:\/\/golfdigest.sports.sndimg.com\/content\/dam\/images\/golfdigest\/fullset\/2022\/scottiesway.jpeg.rend.hgtvcom.966.644.suffix\/1782132587622.jpeg\")
<\/p>\n![\"https:\/\/www.golfdigest.com\/content\/dam\/shortform-videos\/landing-page-promos\/Nicklaus](\"https:\/\/golfdigest.sports.sndimg.com\/content\/dam\/shortform-videos\/landing-page-promos\/Nicklaus%201980%2063.jpg.rend.hgtvcom.966.725.suffix\/1782134146616.jpeg\")
7. Ride the wind when the slope is against you<\/p>\n![\"https:\/\/www.golfdigest.com\/content\/dam\/shortform-videos\/landing-page-promos\/IMG_3389](\"https:\/\/golfdigest.sports.sndimg.com\/content\/dam\/shortform-videos\/landing-page-promos\/IMG_3389%202.JPG.rend.hgtvcom.966.1288.suffix\/1782134111483.jpeg\")
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