MASTERS SPECIAL - Explained: Scottie Scheffler’s footwork

PGA Professional Barney Puttick on how the World No. 1 uses his trademark footwork to his advantage.

It’s interesting that Scottie has basically had the same coach all the time, the highly-respected Randy Smith who has taught him since he was a youngster. When you get that type dynamic and what we all think is a bit of a quirk, the coach has looked at it and thought that they would leave it in.

The more I watch the swing, there are quite a lot of old-fashioned traits. He’s big into loading into his right side on his backswing – there is a proper shift into his right side and a proper coil. He feels that as his foot goes with it there’s no danger of him hanging back and flipping it. That’s the big thing. So, load the right side, the foot comes through and then he absolutely nuts it but there’s no danger of any left turn.

As he comes through it it’s almost quite an athletic move and it reminds me of Mark Calcavecchia who did something similar with a bit of a slide. And his ball flight was also a bit of a fade.

Scheffler can obviously do what he wants and he can turn one round and draw one, and he does this through his hand path. He’s good enough to manoeuvre the hand path a little bit but the trademark foot thing is still there.

I’ve read quite a bit about his coach, he’s quite low key and doesn’t do many books but he’s pretty big on fundamentals and then to go and play with it. Scheffler’s plane is fantastic; his hands finish so high at the end of it and they’re as high as they are on the backswing.

I once had a clinic with Billy Casper and his catchline was always to finish high. Scheffler’s arms haven’t been deflected and he’s collected the ball on the way and his swing plane is fantastic.

It’s maybe stating the obvious but he’s a great athlete and he really knows where the clubface is and it wouldn’t surprise me if he won an Open. He’s very capable of moving the ball around in the wind and great short game. Plus he’s right up there in terms of clutch putting and he just seems to have that ability to do something special when it really matters. And, when he’s good, he’s very good at winning at a canter. He’s been phenomenal over the past year and a bit.