Welcome to Play Smart, a regular GOLF.com game-improvement column that will help you play smarter, better golf.
Scottie Scheffler is where everyone thought he’d be heading into Sunday at the Masters — right atop the leaderboard.
It’s not always easy to live up to expectations, but the No. 1 golfer in the world has handled the pressure beautifully. Through 54 holes on a baked-out Augusta National, no one has played better than Scheffler. He’s seven under through three rounds, and just 18 holes separate him from another green jacket.
His place on the leaderboard is no surprise to those who’ve followed golf over the past 18 months. In that stretch, Scheffler has elevated his ball-striking prowess to a level not seen since Tiger Woods in his prime. And since getting his putting woes figured out this spring, he’s looked almost unbeatable.
When someone is that dialed in with their swing, it’s a great opportunity to study their process and apply those learnings to our own games. And when it comes to Scheffler, there’s something he does before every shot that all golfers should emulate.
1 thing to copy from Scottie Scheffler
Every elite golfer has a pre-shot routine that they stick to for every shot, and Scheffler is no different. Watch him closely and you’ll see him following the same process over and over throughout the round.
Much of the pre-shot routine has to do with mental checks and decision-making. But after those decisions are made and Scheffler starts to step into his shot, he does one last thing: check his grip.
“He always checks it,” Brandel Chamblee said this week on Golf Channel’s “Live From.” “He does that before he hits shots on the golf course. He’ll grip the club and then hold it up in the air. Which I think is a cool way to feel the set in your wrists. You get a little cup in your left wrist when you do that.”
Scheffler might be the best ball striker in golf, but that doesn’t mean he gets overly technical in his approach. Just the opposite, actually. He’s a very feel-based player (evidenced by his wild foot action), as he tries not to overcomplicate his swing.
“I feel like when my swing gets off, it’s usually something that’s very basic about what I’m doing,” Scheffler said earlier this week. “I’m just working on my form and hitting shots.”
One thing that he’s constantly checking is his grip. Scheffler is so committed to making sure his grip is perfect that he uses a molded grip on the range every day to ingrain the proper hand position on the club.
Once he gets to the course, things are no different. The hands are the lone touchpoint between the club and the body, so making sure the grip is perfect is hugely important. Scheffler checks this before each swing he makes, and it’s something that every golfer should copy.
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