- 4 minutes ago
In this video, Joe 'The Pro' Ferguson talks you through how to shape the ball in every direction - just like the world no.1 and newly crowned FedEx Cup Champion Scottie Scheffler does so easily! One of the things that makes Scheffler such a dominant force in the game is his ability to find fairways by tailoring the shots he hits to the shape of the hole and the conditions he's playing in. After watching this video to the end, you'll have the advice you need to be able to pull off the same type of shots - high, low, draws and fades - which should help you find more fairways and shoot lower scores.
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00:00Now Scotty Scheffler is playing some most incredible and most consistent golf
00:03we've seen for many many years. Now there's a lot to like about his game but
00:07the thing I've really noticed and stands out to me the most is his driving. One of
00:12the most creative drivers of the golf ball in the game, not afraid to move it
00:15left to right, right to left and varied trajectory to make things a little bit
00:18easier for himself. I want to know how he does it so I've come to the magnificent
00:23Royal Liverpool Golf Club host of last year's Open to find out and give you
00:27some tips and pointers on how you can drive the ball more like Scotty
00:30Scheffler. One of the things that impresses me most about Scheffler is the
00:34bang for his buck he gets out of his speed. Now he's by no means slow but he's not
00:38the quickest on tour and he's disproportionately high up those
00:41distance standings and how I believe he does that is he factors in conditions
00:45and he alters his trajectory to maximize that the most. So for example I'm on the
00:50driving range here at Royal Liverpool we've got a nice helping breeze so one of
00:54the first thing Scheffler would do is try and increase that launch
00:57ankle increase the peak height get the ball in the air for longer and maximize
01:01that assistance from the wind. That sounds really easy but how does he do it?
01:05It's as simple as a ball position change he's very much manipulates that ball
01:09position to create the flights he wants. For example if I'm just making my normal
01:14swing here I might be kind of just inside my left heel might be my standard
01:19ball position and generally speaking that gets me hitting up on it slightly
01:22which is great and that gives me the nice neutral flight that I want but I want to
01:26launch this into the stratosphere so I'm going to alter that at least half a ball
01:30to a ball further forward in my stance so I want to see that more off my left
01:35toe so what that does straightaway is it puts me my stern and my head more behind
01:40the golf ball and increases that attack angle which will help me launch the ball
01:44up into the air. Now the other thing you want to do here as well as changing that
01:47ball position is don't be afraid to give it a good whack we need speed to be able to
01:53generate height and distance and we've got a forgiving wind here we slightly miscue
01:58it and it goes left or right that wind downwind tends to help to straighten the
02:02ball flight up rather than accentuate any miss so don't be afraid to put some
02:06extra oomph into these ones when you're trying to launch it into the air so like I
02:09said ball position forward feel like it's off that left toe for a right hander
02:14sets me up behind the ball and then I'm in a good position to just give it a ride
02:19so that's exactly what I was hoping for staying behind the ball increasing that
02:28launch angle and really giving it a good whack has really increased that peak
02:32height and that can be a really good strong weapon downwind now conversely to
02:37downwind obviously for every hole you play down when you might play one back into
02:41the wind and not only in windy conditions when the ground's firmer I've seen
02:45Scheffler bring that ball flight down that peak height comes right down to
02:48maximize that forward momentum and that run so again how does he do that similar
02:54but opposite to the high shot so the ball goes fractionally back in the stance but
02:58not too far back a lot of people make that mistake of thinking I'm going to keep
03:01this ball down get the ball right back in the stance and that brings the attack
03:05angle right down which actually increases the spin so it's a very subtle move back
03:10maybe half a ball in the stance so again from my normal position which might be
03:14inside my left heel maybe half a ball closer to the center of the stance that
03:20just reduces that attack angle slightly without it becoming excessive and the
03:24next thing you need to do which might be counterintuitive when you're trying to
03:27maximize your distance just slow that swing down to a more comfortable pace the
03:32less momentum we put into that the less spin we're likely to generate this is all
03:35about taking spin off so a nice comfortable smooth motion with the ball
03:39half a ball back should all things being equal just come out a little bit flatter
03:44less spin when it hits the deck it just wants to go forward so again got a
03:49slightly lower t-peg as well than the last one because we don't need that launch
03:54we're trying to encourage a flatter launch angle so instead of being off the left
03:58heel I'm going to move it back in my stance just a fraction and all I'm going to do is
04:04make my normal swing but just at a slightly smoother what feels like 80%
04:08motion to me
04:14exactly again as I was hoping for just taking that pace off the swing having
04:18the ball slightly back in the stance that's come off so much flatter and I
04:22would imagine five to six hundred revs less spin so when that hits the deck it's
04:26going to want to bounce and run and run and run and the wind barely touch that
04:30so that's a really useful weapon just altering tee height ball position and
04:34swing pace and you can create a completely different flight which is
04:37really useful another thing I love about Sheffield's driving is how he's not afraid
04:42to start moving the ball from right to left and left to right at will he's not
04:46one of those one-dimensional players who just repeats the same shot and the
04:49reasons I like that twofold it makes fairways wider so all of a sudden if
04:54you're shaping the ball with the contours of a fairway with the curve of a fairway
04:59all of a sudden the angle is much more suitable to hit those fairways and create
05:04more accuracy so you'll see him a lot on right to left right to left dog leg holes
05:08like the 10th Augusta for example the hooks he was hitting around there in the
05:12masters were absolutely spot-on similarly 11 you'd see him fading the ball
05:16around the corner so within two holes into completely different shapes of shot
05:20which is to open up the angles and make it easier to hit those fairways but also on
05:24so I've seen him do it to maximize distance all of a sudden if you've got
05:27a slope off the right and you've got that ball hitting the deck and it's coming
05:31more down the slope with a right to left shape you're gonna get some more roll
05:35out and again you really maximize that distance he really gets the most out of
05:38his output so how does he do it so for the right to left one from my point of
05:43view and for for those of you at home it's probably best to keep it really
05:46simple some people like to feel things through impact with rolling of wrists etc I
05:51think most simplistic way to change ball flight is just through setup it's a
05:55simple path and face relationship so if I want the ball to start right and curve
06:00to the left simply put my face needs to be pointing left of my path at impact so I
06:05preset a right path by aiming a little bit further right than I ordinarily would
06:09and I just feel like the club head is towed in a little bit and then all I want to
06:15do is continue to swing out what feels to right field over there but with my
06:19club face pointing a little bit left of that the fake the face being left of the
06:23path will create the spin axis to turn the ball right to left so it's as simple
06:27as that body aims right face towed in a little bit swing up your feet line
06:35so perfect my path is out to the right face was a little bit left of it all
06:41started right holding against the wind just turned over slightly and that's
06:44exactly what I was hoping for okay so left to right as opposed to right to left
06:48as you would imagine it's just a mirror image we do the opposite we want the ball
06:52to start left so I'm going to move my feet and my body alignment to the left and
06:56I'm going to have my face slightly open to that target so we're creating the
07:00face-to-path relationships that's going to make the ball spin and do what we need
07:04now another thing Scheffler does on these left to right shots you see really
07:07varies the tee height so he's got kind of a keep the ball in play shot that I see
07:12him using an awful lot where he pegs the ball down quite significantly it just
07:16creates kind of a more squeezy impact that just tightens that dispersion
07:20knows it's going to go left to right so you can be really comfortable with a left
07:24start line so I'm going to do the same way I just peg it down I'm going to open
07:28my stance and my body up down the left hand side about where I want to see it
07:31starting leave the face a little bit open I'm just going to swing along my body
07:36line as before so that's exactly what I wanted to see so again similar to the
07:49right to left I preset that path to the left so the ball started left the face
07:53being open to that it's created the spin we needed and it's just bled a little bit
07:57to the right at the top of its flight so all of a sudden if you know what
08:00curvature is going to come you've got a much better idea of where you need to
08:04start the ball and what's going to and you can use it on certain holes to suit
08:07the topography to suit the shape and really open up a whole new world of
08:11possibilities so there you have it four really simple ways to dramatically alter
08:16ball flights both from a left to right and a high and low perspective now a lot
08:20of people think that's just for elite golfers but I hope I've shown you just a
08:24couple of really simple alterations to set up can make all the difference and
08:28maybe you can start driving it a little bit more like Scotty Scheffler
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