- 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
00:22Royal 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 and we've got a nice helping breeze so one
00:54of the first things Scheffler would do is try and increase that launch
00:57angle, 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 which
01:22is 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
02:01ball 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
02:24so 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 strong weapon downwind now conversely to downwind
02:38obviously for every hole you play down when you might play one back into the wind and
02:42not only in windy conditions when the ground's firmer I've seen Scheffler
02:45bring that ball flight down that peak height comes right down to maximize that
02:49forward momentum and that run so again how does he do that similar but opposite to
02:55the high shot so the ball goes fractionally back in the stance but not
02:58too far back a lot of people make that mistake of thinking I'm going to keep this
03:01ball down get the ball right back in the stance and that brings the attack angle
03:05right down which actually increases the spin so it's a very subtle move back maybe
03:10half a ball in the stance so again from my normal position which might be inside my
03:15left heel maybe half a ball closer to the center of the stance that just reduces
03:20that attack angle slightly without it becoming excessive and the next thing you
03:24need 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 a ball half a ball back
03:41should all things being equal just come out a little bit flatter less spin when
03:45it hits the deck it just wants to go forward so again got a slightly lower T
03:50peg as well than the last one because we don't need that launch we're trying to
03:54encourage a flatter launch angle so instead of being off the left heel I'm
03:59going to move it back in my stance just a fraction and all I'm going to do is make my
04:04normal swing but just at a slightly smoother what feels like 80% motion to me
04:14exactly again as I was hoping for just taking that pace off the swing having the
04:18ball slightly back in the stance that's come off so much flatter and I would
04:22imagine five to six hundred revs less spin so when that hits the deck it's going
04:26to want to bounce and run and run and run and the wind barely touch that so
04:30that'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
04:58fairway all of a sudden the angles are much more suitable to hit those fairways
05:03and create more accuracy so you'll see him a lot on right to left right to left
05:07dog leg holes like the 10th or Augusta for example the hooks he was hitting
05:11around there and the masters were absolutely spot-on similarly 11 you'd see
05:16him fading the ball around the corner so within two holes into completely
05:19different shapes of shot which is to open up the angles and make it easier to
05:22hit those fairways but also until I've seen him do it to maximize distance all of a
05:27sudden if you've got a slope off the right and you've got that ball hitting
05:30the deck and it's coming more down the slope with a right to left shape you're
05:34going to get some more rollout and again you really maximize that distance he
05:37really gets the most out of his output so how does he do it so for the right to
05:41left one from my point of view and for those of you at home it's probably best to
05:46keep it really simple some people like to feel things through impact with
05:49rolling of wrists etc I think most simplistic way to change ball flight is
05:54just through setup it's a simple path and face relationship so if I want the
05:59ball to start right and curve to the left simply put my face needs to be
06:02pointing left of my path at impact so I preset a right path by aiming a little bit
06:08further right than I ordinarily would and I just feel like the club head is
06:12towed in a little bit and then all I want to do is continue to swing out what
06:17feels to right field over there but with my club face pointing a little bit left of
06:20that the fake the face being left of the path will create the spin axis to turn
06:25the ball right to left so it's as simple as that body aims right face toed in a
06:31little bit swing up your feet line
06:36it's a perfect my path is out to the right face was a little bit left of it
06:40all started right holding against the wind just turned over slightly so that's
06:44exactly what I was hoping for okay so left to right as opposed to right to left as
06:49you would imagine it's just a mirror image we do the opposite we want the
06:52ball to start left so I'm going to move my feet and my body alignment to the left
06:56and I'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
07:04need now another thing Scheffler does on these left to right shots you see
07:07really varies the tee height so he's got kind of a keep the ball in play shot
07:12that I see him using an awful lot where he pegs the ball down quite
07:14significantly it just creates kind of a more squeezy impact that just tightens
07:19that dispersion knows it's going to go left to right so you can be really
07:23comfortable with a left start line so I'm going to do the same way I just peg it
07:27down I'm going to open my stance and my body up down the left-hand side about
07:31where I want to see it starting leave the face a little bit open and I'm just
07:35going to swing along my body line as before
07:46so that's exactly what I wanted to see so again similar to the right to left I
07:50preset that path to the left so the ball started left the face being open to that
07:54it's created the spin we needed and it's just bled a little bit to the right at
07:58the top of its flight so all of a sudden if you know what curvature is going to
08:01come you've got a much better idea of where you need to start the ball on
08:05what's gonna and you can use it on certain holes to suit the topography to
08:08suit the shape and really open up a whole new world of possibilities so there
08:13you have it four really simple ways to dramatically alter ball flights both from
08:17a left to right and a high and low perspective now a lot of people think
08:20that's just for elite golfers but I hope I've shown you just a couple of really
08:24simple alterations to set up can make all the difference and maybe you can start
08:29driving it a little bit more like Scotty Scheffler
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