I’M A LOT LIKE YOU. When I’m driving it well, everything is good in my world.

I’ve got shorter shots into the greens and better looks at birdie. I’m in attack mode. That’s how I love to play golf, and that’s been my plan this year heading into Chambers Bay.

Driving is definitely the foundation of my game. I’ve always been able to hit it pretty long, but after some ups and downs off the tee last year, I realised I need to rein in my misses. So I’ve made some tweaks to my swing, in the takeaway and starting down, and now I’m feeling great about the driver again.

I’ve got to be able to get up and rip it without thinking too much.

When my driving is sharp, I’m hitting a lot of short iron and wedge second shots. I have to hit these tight, or I’m giving one back to the field.

My coach Michael Bannon and I have come up with a system for controlling distances with the short clubs. It gives me a swing for every yardage inside 135m.

You might not be expecting to knock all these shots within 10 feet, but if you can just hit the green more often, your scores will drop.

Here I’ll show you what I’m working on to get my driving and short approaches clicking at the same time. If I can do that, I’ll make a ton of birdies — and it’ll be a killer finish to the year.

McIlroy says the key to his driving success is to keep things simple.

DRIVING: KEEP IT SIMPLE AND STAY AGGRESSIVE

Hitting driver as much as I do is never going to give me a huge percentage of fairways. I’m fine with that. It’s a trade-off for playing aggressively. But I need to watch my misses.

A big key for me is the first two feet of the swing. I want everything — hands, arms, shoulders, clubmoving back together. I sometimes roll the club inside with my hands, then I have to re-route it coming down. That’s hard to do consistently.

I need to start back straighter, with the clubface looking at the ball longer, and let my body turn move the club to the inside. When I get those first two feet right, the rest feels easy.

I’ve also worked hard on keeping my swing wide to the top. At the end of last season I started focusing on really stretching out my left arm going back. I’m pretty flexible, so my turn takes care of itself.

Now my backswing is wider — and a little shorter — so it’s easier to return the club to the ball. Once my left shoulder gets under my chin, I’m ready to start down.

One change I’ve made in the downswing is not shifting so hard towards the target.

I have to move left, yes, but I quickly turn my left knee out of the way. That sets the club on a good path to the ball. I want to be able to swing through aggressively and extend my right arm. As long as I clear my left side, I can go as fast as I want — and still hit fairways.

HITTING FAIRWAYS

My research shows that pros aren’t much more accurate off the tee than amateurs. Why?

1 — Fairways on tour are harder to hit.

2 — Longer drives have more time to stray off line.

HITTING GREENS

Unlike driving accuracy, tour pros lap amateurs when it comes to hitting greens in regulation from the fairway. In the 90-115m range, the pros hit eight out of 10; typical 15-handicappers miss half.

The best advice I can give you on short irons and wedges is to control the swing with your body. Don’t get flippy with your hands. I start from a slightly open stance so I can turn through the shot easier.

Then I stay pretty centred as I go back. I think about maintaining the triangle formed by my arms and shoulders. In fact, that triangle should stay intact all the way through to the finish.

Let me tell you about my three-swing system for controlling distance. The first is a standard swing, where my left arm goes back to about 10:30 on an imaginary clock face and through to a three-quarter finish.

Second, I have what I call my “10-off” swing, where my left arm goes back to about 9 o’clock. That shorter backswing, with everything else staying the same, takes 10 yards off the shot.

The third swing is the 10-off shot, except I grip down an inch on the club. That takes off another 10.

So for a 9-iron, my full shot is 150m, the shorter backswing makes it 140m, and the gripped-

down shorter backswing goes 130m.

Here are my numbers with the wedges:

PITCHING WEDGE 

Standard: 120m

10-off swing: 115m

10-off gripped down: 105m

SAND WEDGE

Standard: 105m

10-off swing: 95m

10-off gripped down: 85m

LOB WEDGE

Standard: 85m

10-off swing: 80m 10-off gripped down: 70m

Try my three-shot system and see where your distances fall. Soon you’ll be able to plug in a club and a swing for every short approach you face. Let’s go make some birdies.