TG Pro instrumental in Clarke’s Open triumph
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TG Elite Pro Rob Watts has been instrumental in turning the fortunes of Darren Clarke around to win his first Major title at Royal St. George’s.
Rob joined the panel of Today’s Golfer Elite coaches just over a year ago, delivering instruction content of the highest quality for the magazine’s readers.
When not posing in front of the TG camera, Rob has spent on average a day and a half a week working with the newly crowned Open Champ on his game.
“Darren is the most dedicated, hard working person I’ve ever met in my life,” says Rob. “I’ve been at his house at 4 o’clock in the morning discussing his plans before he travels to tournaments. I’m so glad all his hard work has finally paid off.”
Rob believes that moving back to Portrush eight months ago was crucial in Darren winning the Open.
“Playing on a links course, I think it’s been a big help to him. He’d go out and play in the rain when no-one else would set foot on the course, that’s how dedicated he is. I remember back in January last year, we shoveled snow off the range at Queenwood so he could hit pitch shots working on his movement, that’s how hard he works.“
It was only through chance that Rob started working with Clarke three years ago.
“ I got introduced to Darren through a work colleague at his home in London back in 2008,” says Rob. “First I got him working with Heartmath, an emotion-management technique, and some basic biomechanics. We went to the range at Queenwood, his home club, and I watched him hit balls and videoed his swing.”
“I changed his posture – he was very rounded in his shoulders and stood too far away from the ball. His weight was too much on his toes causing him to tilt and get too steep in his backswing. I gave him some training programmes for when he was away on Tour and after two weeks he finished in the top ten in Malaysia.”
“I went to every major tournament with him from there. After working with him for four to five months he installed a purpose-built gym in his home allowing him to work on his flexibility and rotational movement.”
Rob has worked on Darren’s movement sequence in conjunction with his swing coaches Ewen Murray and Pete Cowan, helping him swing the club they way they want him to.
Check out Rob’s inside analysis of Clarke’s swing in the next edition of Today’s Golfer, on sale August 11th.