This tip from Scottie Scheffler will help you shoot your lowest score possible this weekend
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Scheffler’s PGA Championship win is already in the history books – but one tip he shared that week flew under the radar, and it could help you shoot lower scores from now on.
It’s easy to forget now, after he romped to a five-shot win, but Scottie Scheffler didn’t have it all his own way at the PGA Championship.
During the opening round at Valhalla, the world No.1 looked frustrated – and sometimes baffled.
One of the worst examples came on the par-4 16th – Scheffler’s seventh hole of the day due to a two-tee start. Playing alongside Xander Schauffele and Rory McIlroy, three of the world’s best golfers all made double bogey. McIlroy’s was partly due to a misplaced tee shot, but Schauffele and Scheffler had both hit the fairway.
Faced with a fairly routine iron shot, Scheffler, arguably the best iron player in the business, inexplicably hit his approach way left into the water.
Schauffele followed him with a shot even further left, also into the drink.
“What in the world is going on?” asked the commentary team.
In his post-round press conference, Scheffler answered that very question.
“On 16, I hit in the middle of the fairway, you’ve got mud on your ball, and it’s tough to control where it goes after that.”
Heavy rain in the days before the tournament had soaked the course, turning the fairways soft and leaving players at the mercy of the dreaded mud ball – where a clump of mud on the ball sends it veering unpredictably in flight.
“It’s frustrating to hit the ball in the middle of the fairway and get mud on it and have no idea where it’s going to go,” explained Scheffler.
“I understand it’s part of the game, but there’s nothing more frustrating for a player. You spend your whole life trying to learn how to control a golf ball, and all of a sudden you have absolutely no control over where that golf ball goes.”
Golf can be a cruel game. Whether it’s mud balls, bad bounces, lip-outs, or divots, you’re unlikely to make it through 18 holes without your fair share of misfortune.
But you have a choice.
You can curse your luck, get angry, and let it ruin your round – or you can take a leaf out of Scottie Scheffler’s book.
“In golf, there’s enough luck throughout a 72-hole tournament,” he said. “I could have let that bother me today, when you got a mud ball and it cost me a couple shots. It cost me possibly two shots on one hole, and if I let that bother me, it could cost me five shots the rest of the round. But I was proud of how I stayed in there, didn’t let it get to me, and was able to play some solid golf.
“I did a good job of battling back today and not letting a bad break like that get to me. I did a good job battling and keeping a level head out there during a day when there were definitely some challenging aspects to the course.”
Scheffler doesn’t ride the emotional rollercoaster. He stays calm, even when the game feels unfair. And that’s a lesson every golfer can learn.
You’re going to get bad breaks. Mud balls, unlucky kicks, unfair lies – some days, golf just doesn’t give you a fair shake. But what you do next is everything.
Tiger Woods has long followed a ’10 feet’ rule that applies here perfectly. After a bad shot, you have 10 feet (or 10 steps) up the hole to let out whatever you need to let out – vent, curse, call yourself a silly sausage – but then it’s done. After those 10 steps, the last shot is in the past, and it’s all about the next one.
Scheffler might not call it that, but it’s the same philosophy. Don’t dwell. Don’t spiral. Accept what’s happened, move on, and stick to your process.
So next time you get a mud ball or catch a bad break, don’t let it wreck your round. Channel your inner Scheffler. Or Tiger. Accept what’s happened and move on. And who knows – you might just post a number you didn’t think was possible.
You might never swing it like Scottie Scheffler, but you’ll score a lot better if you start thinking like him.
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Scottie Scheffler shares a great tip for shooting lower scores.
