Being the world’s number one golfer means having all the shots in your locker and for Scottie Scheffler, his trusty ‘stinger’ drive is a serious weapon on the course.
Scheffler has worked his way to the top of the world rankings in recent years and while his footwork and swing might not be the easiest on the eye, there is no doubting his actual ability and ball-striking.
For Scheffler, it’s all about winning golf tournaments and to do that, he needs to produce certain shots at certain times.
One of the shots he has got in the locker – much like Tiger Woods did – was his low stinger drive.
Oftentimes, Scheffler uses this as his ‘fairway finder’ and ahead of The Open at Royal Portrush, this sort of shot will be crucial.
Now, though, we can all go and practice it, as Scheffler gives away the secrets.
How Scottie Scheffler hits his trusty ‘stinger’ drives
Being amazing off the tee is one of Scottie Scheffler’s best traits and when it comes to the crunch in tournaments, he’s often one of the best at getting his ball in the right spot.
Key to being so consistent with that element of his game is his ball striking off the tee and the occasional use of a slightly lower, stinger type drive.
And explaining that very shot, Scheffler has told amateurs all the secrets.
“The really important thing when teeing it up, is that I tee it up slightly lower than I normally would with a full driver. The first thing I do is that I choke up on it a little bit. When trying to hit it really low the thing I struggle with is fighting a hook, so as I stand closer to the ball it is harder for me to get the ball to turn over right to left,” Scheffler explains in a video from last year with TaylorMade.
“So there is a couple of things I do to prevent the ball from hooking. The first thing is to choke down on it a little bit. I move the ball back in my stance to get that low flight but what happens when you move the ball back in your stance, you catch it earlier in the arch and that causes the ball to hook.
“But for the sake of me getting the correct height, I put it back in my stance but then I open up the stance, so my path is now going down the middle of the fairway, ball a bit further back so I feel like I’m hitting it low and the way I do that mostly is keeping the arms low as I’m hitting through the ball.
“When I’m hitting a normal driver I feel like I’m hitting up on it, now I feel like I am swinging through it and the arms are staying lower. But most important, ball back, open stance.”
How Tiger Woods explained how to hit his famous stinger
Golfers all find different ways to make things happen and while Scottie Scheffler’s stinger is a good sight to behold, it is Tiger Woods who is the man when it comes to hitting them.
“I’m sure most of you have seen this shot. It’s a shot I’ll play quite often just to get the ball in play, whether it’s a three iron, four iron, or five wood, three wood, even sometimes a driver, it’s the same kind of shot,” Woods has explained previously.
“Because I’m hitting down on it, I like hitting a low draw with this one, so the more back I play it, obviously the more draw I’m going to have on it.
“So I go back just a little bit of my stance, really try and feel as if I make a normal back swing. I still get behind the ball, still load the right leg, but I really try and feel like this right shoulder gets on top of that golf ball.
“It feels high, it feels like it’s covered. And one of the things that depends on how far I want to get down, or how low I want to hit it is how much I’ll take out on the follow through. And sometimes that’s one of the things that… I may hit it quite short, but it’s at the trajectory that I want.
“So I’ll hit down on it, but I’ll stop it quickly here. It’s not going to go as far, but it’s going to have a low height. It’ll be lower than tree height out there.
“So it stays out of the wind, never gets above the tree height. Go a little bit further, maybe a little bit higher, it would be right on tree height. So I really try to feel like I cover it, I get on top of it, now I’ll shut it off after that.”
Anyone for a Scottie Scheffler v Tiger Woods stinger face off? Now that would be good viewing!
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