Royal Liverpool Golf Club seems to have a simple recipe for success: Take out your highest lofted fairway wood and replace it with a long iron.

The last two winners of The Open Championship at Royal Liverpool – Tiger Woods (2006) and Rory McIlroy (2014) – each replaced a 5-wood with a 2-iron prior to the event for more control off the tee.

With internal out of bounds looming, wind whipping and 81 penal pot bunkers throughout the course, controlling the golf ball off the tee is imperative. In Woods’ 2006 victory, he famously hit an astounding 86% of fairways, and he only hit his Nike SasQuatch driver one time.

This week, distance will likely take a backseat to accuracy once again.

In preparation, McIlroy has already added a TaylorMade P-760 2-iron to his setup, but he’s far from alone in this strategy.

Jordan Spieth, who won the 2017 Open Championship at Royal Birkdale, is likely switching into a new Titleist T-150 3-iron at Royal Liverpool this week to replace his typical Titleist TSi2 hybrid. The T-150 iron model is still unreleased to the public; Titleist launched the new T-Series irons earlier this summer at the Memorial Tournament presented by Workday.

“Flight, feel, control. (Spieth) felt like the T-150 gave him all that,” said Titleist rep J.J. Van Wezenbeeck. “Some tee shots, you need to be very in charge of your ball flight with the cross breeze.”

During Spieth’s 2017 win at Royal Birkdale, he had a Titleist 718 T-MB 3-iron in the bag rather than a hybrid.

Likewise, Max Homa – who typically uses a Titleist TSR2 7-wood – is likely switching into a new Titleist T200 2-iron.

Homa also tested a T100S 3-iron, said Van Wezenbeeck, but felt like he “needed to stretch it a little farther. The T200 gave him some ball speed and could still flight it. It helps him move it down the fairway a little farther.”

Other notable players considering long-iron switches include Sam Burns (Callaway X-Forged UT 16-degrees) and Collin Morikawa (TaylorMade P-790 3-iron).