Ben Crenshaw's Timeless Driving Accuracy Lessons from 1981

Golf instruction trends come and go, but the fundamentals endure. GOLF.com's Timeless Tips series surfaced a 1981 GOLF Magazine piece by Ben Crenshaw on driving accuracy — and its relevance to modern SG: Off the Tee thinking is striking.

A Crisis That Forced Change

By 1976, Crenshaw was missing as many as 10 fairways per round. Shaped by mentor Harvey Penick's maxim that "the woods are full of long hitters," he made a methodical diagnosis. His first fix was equipment: switching from a stiff (S) shaft to a tipped extra-stiff (X) lowered his ball flight and dramatically improved accuracy. The cost was roughly 15 yards — from 280 to 265 off the tee. His framing is direct: he would always choose 265 yards in the fairway over 280 in the rough. Modern Strokes Gained data backs this instinct strongly.

Setup and Swing Fundamentals

Crenshaw also overhauled his address: moving the ball from the left instep to the left heel, setting the right knee inward, and reducing lateral sway and backswing length. The core principle? Trust your swing. Steering the ball kills clubhead speed and destroys timing. On the course, he recommended one swing key maximum — and when tension builds, lightening grip pressure until you can feel the clubhead again.

Course Management Tactics

Crenshaw outlines several practical levers:

- Tee box slopes can be used intentionally to shape draws or fades - Tee height controls trajectory — lower for tight holes, higher to encourage a draw - Choking down on the Driver stiffens the shaft slightly and tightens the arc - Targeting must account for actual ball-flight tendencies, not ideal lines

He also flags the classic amateur mistake: aiming at the fairway center while consistently slicing into the right rough. Adjusting the target line to match your shot shape is a simple, free stroke-saver.

Strokeslab's Take

What Crenshaw intuited in 1981, SG: Off the Tee now quantifies. Finding the fairway compounds positively across the entire hole, and his willingness to trade distance for accuracy was — and remains — sound strategy.