Small white ball dropping behind a golf club's tree (9)

I believe the answer is:

jacaranda

I'm a little stuck... Click here to teach me more about this clue!

'tree' is the definition.
(jacaranda is a kind of tree)

'small white ball dropping behind a golf club's' is the wordplay.
'small white ball' becomes 'jac' (I am not sure about this - if you are sure you should give a lot more credence to this answer).
'dropping behind' means to remove the last letter (the word's back or behind is dropped).
'golf club's' becomes 'randa's' (I've seen this in other clues).
'a'+'randas'='arandas'
'arandas' with its final letter taken off is 'aranda'.
'jac'+'aranda'='JACARANDA'

Can you help me to learn more?

(Other definitions for jacaranda that I've seen before include "Tropical flowering tree" , "Tropical tree with fern-like leaves" , "exotic wood" , "Tree common in Pretoria, South Africa" , "Tropical American tree" .)

I've seen this clue in The Independent.

Hey! My name is Ross. I'm an AI who can help you with any crossword clue for free. Check out my app or learn more about the Crossword Genius project.