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 of the most incredible and most consistent golf we've seen for many, many years.
00:06Now there's a lot to like about his game, but the thing that I've really noticed and stands out to me the most is his driving.
00:12One of the most creative drivers of the golf ball in the game, not afraid to move it left to right, right to left and vary trajectory to make things a little bit easier for himself.
00:20I want to know how he does it, so I've come to the magnificent Royal Liverpool Golf Club host of last year's Open
00:26to find out and give you some tips and pointers on how you can drive the ball more like Scotty Scheffler.
00:31One of the things that impresses me most about Scheffler is the bang for his buck he gets out of his speed.
00:36Now he's by no means slow, but he's not the quickest on tour and he's disproportionately high up those distance standings.
00:43And how I believe he does that is he factors in conditions and he alters his trajectory to maximise that the most.
00:49So for example, I'm on the driving range here at Royal Liverpool and we've got a nice helping breeze.
00:54So one of the first things Scheffler would do is try and increase that launch angle, increase the peak height,
00:59get the ball in the air for longer and maximise that assistance from the wind.
01:03That sounds really easy, but how does he do it? It's as simple as a ball position change.
01:08He very much manipulates that ball position to create the flights he wants.
01:12For example, if I'm just making my normal swing here, I might be kind of just inside my left heel, might be my standard ball position.
01:20And generally speaking, that gets me hitting up on it slightly, which is great.
01:23And that gives me the nice neutral flight that I want. But I want to launch this into the stratosphere.
01:27So I'm going to alter that at least half a ball to a ball further forward in my stance.
01:32So I want to see that more off my left toe.
01:36So what that does straightaway is it puts me, my sternum, my head more behind the golf ball and increases that attack angle,
01:42which will help me launch the ball up into the air.
01:45Now, the other thing you want to do here, as well as changing that ball position, is don't be afraid to give it a good whack.
01:51We need speed to be able to generate height and distance.
01:55And we've got a forgiving wind here. If we slightly miscue it and it goes left or right,
01:59that downwind tends to help to straighten the ball flight up rather than accentuate any miss.
02:04So don't be afraid to put some extra oomph into these ones when you're trying to launch it into the air.
02:08So like I said, 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 launch angle and really giving it a good whack,
02:30has really increased that peak height and that can be a really strong weapon downwind.
02:35Now, conversely to downwind, obviously for every hole you play downwind, you might play one back into the wind.
02:42And not only in windy conditions, when the ground's firmer, I've seen Sheffler bring that ball flight down,
02:46that peak height comes right down to maximise that forward momentum and that run.
02:51So again, how does he do that? Similar but opposite to the high shot.
02:56So the ball goes fractionally back in the stance, but not too far back.
02:59A lot of people make that mistake of thinking, I'm going to keep this ball down, get the ball right back in the stance.
03:04And that brings the attack angle right down, which actually increases the spin.
03:08So it's a very subtle move back, maybe half a ball in the stance.
03:12So again, from my normal position, which might be inside my left heel, maybe half a ball closer to the centre of the stance.
03:19That just reduces that attack angle slightly without it becoming excessive.
03:24And the next thing you need to do, which might be counterintuitive when you're trying to maximise your distance,
03:28just slow that swing down to a more comfortable pace.
03:32The less momentum we put into that, the less spin we're likely to generate.
03:35This is all about taking spin off. So a nice, comfortable, smooth motion with the ball half a ball back.
03:41Should all things being equal, just come out a little bit flatter, less spin.
03:45And when it hits the deck, it just wants to go forward.
03:48So again, got a slightly 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.
03:57So instead of being off the left heel, I'm going to move it back in my stance just a fraction.
04:03And all I'm going to do is make my normal swing, but just at a slightly smoother, what feels like 80% motion to me.
04:15Exactly again, as I was hoping for, just taking that pace off the swing, having the ball slightly back in the stance.
04:20That's come off so much flatter, and I would imagine 500-600 revs less spin.
04:25So when that hits the deck, it's going to want to bounce and run and run and run.
04:29And the wind barely touched that.
04:31It's a really useful weapon, just altering T height, ball position and swing pace.
04:35And you can create a completely different flight, which is really useful.
04:39Another thing I love about Sheffer's driving is how he's not afraid to start moving the ball from right to left and left to right at will.
04:45He's not one of those one-dimensional players who just repeats the same shot.
04:49And the reasons I like that are twofold.
04:52It makes fairways wider.
04:54So all of a sudden, if you're shaping the ball with the contours of a fairway, with the curve of a fairway,
04:59all of a sudden, the angles are much more suitable to hit those fairways and create more accuracy.
05:05So you'll see him a lot on right-to-left dogleg holes, like the 10th for Augusta, for example.
05:10The hooks he was hitting around there in the Masters were absolutely spot on.
05:14Similarly, 11, you'd see him fading the ball around the corner.
05:17So within two holes, you can see completely different shapes of shot,
05:20which just open up the angles and make it easier to hit those fairways.
05:23But also, I've seen him do it to maximise distance.
05:26All of a sudden, if you've got a slope off the right and you've got that ball hitting the deck
05:30and it's coming more down the slope with a right-to-left shape,
05:33you're going to get some more roll out.
05:35And again, you really maximise that distance.
05:37He really gets the most out of his output.
05:39So how does he do it?
05:40So for the right-to-left one, from my point of view and for those of you at home,
05:45it's probably best to keep it really simple.
05:47Some people like to feel things through impact with rolling of wrists, etc.
05:51I think the most simplistic way to change ball flight is just through setup.
05:55It's a simple path and face relationship.
05:58So if I want the ball to start right and curve to the left,
06:01simply put, my face needs to be pointing left of my path at impact.
06:05So I preset a right path by aiming a little bit further right than I ordinarily would.
06:10And I just feel like the club head is towed in a little bit.
06:14And then all I want to do is continue to swing out what feels to right field over there.
06:18But with my club face pointing a little bit left of that,
06:21the face being left of the path will create the spin axis to turn the ball right-to-left.
06:26So it's as simple as that.
06:28Body aims right, face towed in a little bit, swing up your feet line.
06:36So perfect.
06:37My path was out to the right, face was a little bit left of it, ball started right,
06:41holding against the wind, just turned over slightly.
06:44And that's exactly what I was hoping for.
06:46So left-to-right as opposed to right-to-left.
06:49As you would imagine, it's just a mirror image.
06:51We do the opposite. We want the ball to start left.
06:54So I'm going to move my feet and my body alignment to the left.
06:57And I'm going to have my face slightly open to that target.
07:00So we're creating the face-to-path relationships that's going to make the ball spin and do what we need.
07:05Now another thing Sheffler does on these left-to-right shots is he really varies the tee height.
07:09So he's got kind of a keep the ball in play shot that I see him using an awful lot
07:13where he pegs the ball down quite significantly.
07:16It just creates kind of a more squeezy impact that just tightens that dispersion,
07:21knows it's going to go left-to-right so it can be really comfortable with a left start line.
07:25So I'm going to do the same here, just peg it down.
07:28I'm going to open my stance and my body up down the left-hand side about where I want to see it starting.
07:33Leave the face a little bit open and I'm just going to swing along my body line as before.
07:46So that's exactly what I wanted to see.
07:48So again, similar to the right-to-left, I preset that path to the left so the ball started left.
07:53The face being open to that has created the spin we needed
07:56and it's just bled a little bit to the right at the top of its flight.
07:59So all of a sudden, if you know what curvature is going to come,
08:02you've got a much better idea of where you need to start the ball
08:05and you can use it on certain holes to suit the topography, to suit the shape
08:09and really open up a whole new world of possibilities.
08:12So there you have it, four really simple ways to dramatically alter ball flights,
08:17both from a left-to-right and a high-and-low perspective.
08:19Now a lot of people think that's just for elite golfers,
08:22but I hope I've shown you that just a couple of really simple alterations to set up can make all the difference
08:28and maybe you can start driving it a little bit more like Scottie Scheffler.