Driving iron emerges as Kim Joo-hyung's secret weapon at The Open

As Kim Joo-hyung bids for back-to-back wins at the 154th Open Championship — the season's final major — one club has emerged as the weapon of choice: the driving iron.

Long irons of the past were notoriously difficult to hit and unforgiving on mishits, leading even tour professionals to avoid them. But modern driving irons are a different proposition. They maintain ball speed even on low-face contact, offer precise trajectory control and deliver a meaningful degree of forgiveness.

The blueprint for this approach was written by Tiger Woods at the 2006 Open at Royal Liverpool, where he reached for his driver just once over four rounds, relying instead on a precise 2-iron off the tee to claim the title. This year's field has embraced that same philosophy, with players loading their bags with purpose-built irons for tee shots.

Kim, who won the Genesis Scottish Open last week, is set to deploy the Titleist T200 driving iron as his key weapon to cut through firm fairways and strong headwinds when the tournament gets underway.

Kim showed last week on the wind-swept Scottish course his ability to flight the ball low and his sharp iron-play instincts. He also showed smart course management, actively using a hollow-body 2- or 3-iron off the tee instead of a driver on firm fairways to avoid the deadly pot bunkers and improve his fairway-hit percentage.

Golfweek and other leading golf publications have analyzed how the unique conditions of the links course hosting The Open push players toward driving irons — which guarantee a low, penetrating ball flight — over fairway woods or hybrids.

Links courses differ sharply from the parkland-style tournament venues common in the United States. Situated along the coast, they are exposed to unpredictable, powerful winds from every direction. Fairway woods and hybrids, which launch the ball high with heavy spin, are easily knocked off line in such conditions. Driving irons, by contrast, produce a strong, low trajectory ideally suited to punching through the wind.

The fairways on a links course are also baked extremely firm, meaning the ball runs a considerable distance after landing. Players do not need to launch the ball high to gain yardage — a low driving-iron shot that finds the fairway will gather enough run to cover the distance.

The pot bunkers at The Open are so deep and steep-faced that escape is nearly impossible once a ball finds one. Rather than attacking aggressively with a driver, the smart play is to use the accuracy of a driving iron to land the ball just short of a bunker or in a safe zone.

At the tournament venue, a clear trend has emerged among players from seasoned veterans to rookies: pulling the 3-wood or hybrid from the bag and replacing it with a 1- to 3-iron driving iron.

Jon Rahm of Spain, who combines power with precision, has prepared a Callaway Apex UT driving iron. Tyrrell Hatton of England has fitted Ping's latest iDi driving iron with a stiff shaft to handle the links wind. Michael Brennan of the United States, making his Open debut, special-ordered a Titleist U505 1-iron and tested it during practice rounds.

Ultimately, success at this week's Open may hinge on how well players use their driving irons to manage the wind and navigate the course's most dangerous zones. The championship runs Thursday through Sunday at Royal Birkdale Golf Club on the Lancashire coast in northwest England, where Kim will be joined by four other South Korean players — Kim Si-woo, Lim Sung-jae, Ham Jeong-woo and Yang Ji-ho.