If you dive into the statistics, Scottie Scheffler’s ball-striking prowess is on a completely different level to anyone else on the planet right now, and it has been for around two years. Barely a tournament passes where the world number one hasn’t led almost every statistical category around the long game, and this is no flash in the pan, it happens time and time again. This Amazon Prime Day, I might just be able to help you get a little closer to Scheffler levels of performance...
As a somewhat ‘old school’ PGA Professional, I have looked on uncomfortably in recent times as Instagram coaches flood the game with their picture-perfect unattainable demands for technical perfection. With his unorthodox footwork and other idiosyncratic moves, I take immense pleasure in seeing someone with his own individual golf swing dominating the professional game.
While Scheffler doesn’t necessarily fit the mold that many modern coaches seem to demand, he has built one of the most consistent and repeatable actions in the game.
Having become intrigued by his generational level of consistency, I have scoured TV coverage, YouTube videos, and just about every article available and it seems that simplicity, basic fundamentals, and repetition are what Scheffler prioritizes above all else, and nowhere is that more evident than in his grip.
While taking my deep dive, one thing kept cropping up time and time again in pictures, a molded rubber training grip! He simply refuses to undertake a single practice session or warm-up without using it. In fact, at the recent USPGA Championship, it was even the first club he picked out of the bag for his hurried warm-up after being released from jail! It is that important to him.
Take a look at Scheffler the next time you see him on the TV coverage, and watch just how carefully, and meticulously he places his hands on the grip of the club when taking his address. It is like watching a surgeon prepare their tools for an operation, everything must be just so, and that stems back to his work with the training grip.
Scheffler clearly understands and values the importance of the grip as the only point of contact with the golf club and the number one influence over the clubface, and works diligently to perfect it. He has his grip on a practice 7-iron and will always hit several full shots with it in a session to reinforce good solid fundamentals which I believe is one of the keys to his incredible consistency.
As a PGA Professional, I would absolutely urge you to get hold of one of these grips, take it to your local Pro Shop have it installed on something similar to Scheffler like a 7-iron, and begin to implement it consistently within all of your warm-ups and practice sessions. With so many things that can and do go wrong within the golf swing, eliminating a variable such as the grip is both easy to do and will reap huge rewards in terms of consistency.
This Prime Day, there are some exceptional deals to be had on this style of training grip, and for less than the price of a sleeve of balls, what is stopping you? If the world number one thinks it helps him, then surely we can learn from that?
