Did you mean Tiger Woods ? he won the 2006 Open Championship and only hit driver once.
St. Andrews is a wide fairways driving course. Daley used driver everywhere when he won the 1995 Open Championship. He drove 5-6 par 4s and was hitting iron second shots into par 5s
You’re correct. I did mix them. What I do remember is on the first hole of playoff with Rocca, the announcers commented that Daly was not using the driver and opted for a one iron off the tee playing it “safe.”. I should have said that when he was really in the mix with the playoff, he didn’t use the driver. And I believe Woods was hamstrung at that win you mentioned because I believe it was about that time that the PGA banned the driver he was using. Both he and Ernie Ells were stripped of it of the big names I remember.
You seem a student of the game, which good golfers are. One of the problems with the pro game is that there are many that can go 300 or over on demand. The landing locations on the older courses for these guys have changed. So the courses are creating their own distinct problem of forcing decisions of playing into the traditional landing areas or trying to go beyond them into open landing spots. Some courses are giving of this while others, especially open courses, aren’t. This is why you may see 20 under for a win or around even par for the same. And the only real differences between the pros and the better golfer in the real world is the practice time, the coaches, and that the clubs they use are designed for them to get optimal play. You and I can’t afford those. A real display of this is that many of the pros come from University golf teams that have good instruction. So where ever they come from, they learn or perfect the game in college many times.
rwood