The Golf Intervention

EP 45: Quick Question: What Makes Scotty Scheffler So Great and What Can Everyday Golfers Learn From Him?

• Eric Layton • Episode 45

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Episode Summary:
Scottie Scheffler is dominating professional golf right now — but why? In this episode of The Golf Intervention, we break down the key elements that make Scheffler’s game so effective, from his elite ball-striking and consistent process to his often-overlooked mental game. More importantly, we connect the dots between what he does at the top of the sport and what you can do as an amateur golfer to get better. Whether it’s how he handles pressure, his putting turnaround, or how he builds a repeatable swing that holds up under fire, there are valuable lessons here for golfers at every level.


Tune in if you want to understand what greatness looks like — and how to bring a piece of it to your weekend round.

Eric:

And welcome back in to the Golf Intervention Podcast. We're so glad you're joining us tonight for this quick question episode, and this one is a doozy. So I'm just gonna read it to Rob fails. I think we'll both have our opinions on this. It'd be really, really fun. So this one comes from John in Toronto, which is kind of a cool place to get a question from. We do have lots of listeners in Canada, so if you're one of those, thanks for tuning in. This question says boys. What makes Scotty Scheffler so good? And is there anything that a hacker like myself can learn from him? What a great question. Thank you.

Rob Failes:

Oh yeah.

Eric:

Even the Canadians have great questions. It's really good.

Rob Failes:

A great question.

Eric:

So I will say that Scotty Scheffler obviously is on this run. I am old enough. I'm not sure Robbie is old enough to have been like through the height of Tiger Mania. Um, I was in college. I'm four years, I think I'm three or four years younger than Tiger. I was in college studying golf management, right? While Tiger is like. In the 2001, 2002, you know, and then I'm Golf Pro in 2004, 2000, like that run was unbelievable. And I'm not saying Scotty's on that type of run yet, but you can see it. It's building, right? I mean, it's

Rob Failes:

Yep.

Eric:

pretty fabulous. Nobody, I don't think ever played golf like Tiger did. The height of that peak dominance was unbelievable. Um, and I don't think Scotty's quite there. Um, but. Good gracious. This guy is every week. I mean, so good. What, what makes him so good is that this is a, I I can't wait to hear your answer to this question. I will say I wish I had some more insider information. I really don't, but I, I learned last week this kind of an interesting tidbit. That my brother's father-in-law, who's a lawyer in Dallas and was president of the Royal Oaks Country Club, where the Scheffler, you know, Scotty grew up, actually was the one that basically introduced. Scotty's parents and Scotty as a young man too. Randy Smith, his coach, how about that? And then sponsored them to join Royal Oaks Country Club. And so, um, he was, yeah, he was a great, he was a great guy, passionate golfer, great lawyer in Dallas. And he's, unfortunately, has passed away, uh, very tragically. But it was great friends with Randy Smith. And if you don't know who Randy Smith is, uh, Randy Smith has to be, in my opinion, has to be considered. The, the preeminent developer of golfers in our generation. Now there's great coaches who teach people, oh, they come, you know, Butch Harmon got Tiger when he was in college or whatever, but Randy Smith has literally raised at one country club from like junior golfer to tour player, multiple major champions. Justin Leonard was like his first, Scotty Scheffler, obviously, and then a. Bunch of others, like a bunch, I don't know how many, there are, 10 or 12 or 13, like tour players, um, that he's, you know, raised from the ground up. And Randy Smith is just a brilliant, um, instructor coach. And so a, I think first thing to learn from Scotty Schiffler is find a great coach and stick with him. Right? Um, Scotty is not changing his coach, like he's changing his his shirt like some of these guys do. Um, he. And I will say that sometimes you can look at a coach player relationship and wonder would they be better if they moved on? And we're not in the middle of any of that story, so we can't really make that assertion. But obviously Scotty has just continued to get better and better and better and better. Why would you, why would you move on from that? So I think my first point of contention with Scotty Scheffler, that that, that any golfer could learn, find a great coach and stick with him. What do you think Rob?

Rob Failes:

totally. So one thing that always does come out in Sky's interviews is that idea of decoupling self and craft, So he says it. Ad nauseum. It's like, yeah, this tournament didn't define me like he just won the Masters, but he's in front of the entire media room saying, this tournament, this win does not define who I am. I just thought that was so powerful when he did that. And just reinforces the idea that he is not out there playing with his identity on the line.

Eric:

Yeah.

Rob Failes:

he's out there playing golf. it.

Eric:

Yeah.

Rob Failes:

He's just playing the game. A lot of other people who he's competing with are not just playing golf, they're multitasking with other stuff. Maybe not during the whole round, but I think Scotty is the most on time and on task golfer that's playing right now. And I, I'll tell you, it's his mindset of, of really prioritizing the things that are relevant to. The shot in hand, uh, and pretty much nothing else.

Eric:

I think if you even delve deeper into that, you know, his spirituality is probably his most important thing. He talks about his life. I mean, he's pretty, pretty straightforward about that. Second of all, um, so it's probably faith and family and golf in that order for Scotty, right? He's not distracted. He's not distracted by. Social media, he has zero social media accounts. Zero. Um, and so again,

Rob Failes:

So

Eric:

what does his brand or his image have to do with how he plays

Rob Failes:

have

Eric:

Nothing. Right? Nothing. And it's, it's so interesting. If you look at all the things he does,

Rob Failes:

the things.

Eric:

look at his swing, you could look at it that I think there's players that are vain enough.

Rob Failes:

that

Eric:

They would look at his footwork or whatever he does and think, oh, that's my, I gotta make a swing. That quote, unquote looks better than that'cause of vanity, right? Scotty? When he works the ball right to left off the tee. It doesn't, it looks a little, what you might say, awkward in a way. Like he, he's learned how to make the ball go right to left off the T, but it's a little bit of a awkward follow through, almost like a Arnold Palmer type of swing. Um, he doesn't care one bit in the world'cause it's not relevant. What it looks like, what's relevant is him striping that ball down the middle of the fairway. She does. Wonderfully. So again, it's like, to your point, always being able to have that mindset of like, this is what matters. This is all I care about. This is what I'm doing. It doesn't, and that's it. And, and we just heard a story. We were just interviewed on a podcast, which is pretty cool, which will be coming out I guess in a few weeks. But they were talking about playing with somebody who kept saying.

Rob Failes:

somebody

Eric:

This isn't the right sh I'm not hitting the right shot. I'm supposed to hit the right shot from here or whatever. It was like a, you know, someone who's terrible at golf and, but like couldn't chip it, but they said, I'm gonna try to chip it'cause it's the right thing to do. Um, do you think Scotty Scheffler ever had a thought like that in his mind? Ever. Ever. Never. Right. That's not how he's wired. So it goes back to growth mindset. I'm sure Scotty Scheffler has never studied growth mindset. He's been raised really well, coached really well. He's probably wired really well, I'm sure, right? Like there is some wiring that's like nature in there. Um, but it's, it's amazing to

Rob Failes:

it's, it's

Eric:

kind of watch him consistently. Stay with he, with what he's doing. Time, after time, after time. He's not looking for answers. He's not changing his swing for it to look better. He's not, you know, he's, he's just so good. And, and, and

Rob Failes:

so

Eric:

Spieth, I think was

Rob Failes:

York

Eric:

marveling at his club face control. Now, Jordan Spieth uses the term club face control a lot, um, which I think is interesting. You know, you and I don't use the term control with the club face very often.

Rob Failes:

Yeah,

Eric:

Um.

Rob Failes:

love that.

Eric:

But Jordan kept saying his club face control is outstanding. It's the best I've ever seen. So I think that it's, um, what do, what do you think about that quote, Rob? What, what would you say about Rob, uh, about Scotty and his club face?

Rob Failes:

No, I

Eric:

I.

Rob Failes:

it is easily the most predictable. Right? He is. He is producing his intent, uh, or around it. most predictably of anyone on tour. and it's probably not even close, honestly. I mean, it is elite, like Jordan said, it is maybe the best that we've seen since I, I'm, I'm having a hard time thinking of who's dispersion is more insane than Scotty's.

Eric:

And especially, uh, as far as he hits it, right? So he is like

Rob Failes:

Yes.

Eric:

he's not first in strokes gained off the tee, but he's high, right? Um, and he's not one of the 10 longest, or probably not even one of the 20 longest players, but he's probably in the top 20 to 30 I would say. So he doesn't hit it short by any means. Um, but his accuracy off the t is outrageously good and then he is number one in strokes. Gained, I think, approach shot. Um. You know his one that's not like great is Bunker Bunkers, which is kind of funny. But his putting this year top 15, he's 15th in strokes, game putting, which is actually kind of writing, um. And again, like,

Rob Failes:

to the

Eric:

so here you go. Here you go though. Right? So you talk about growth mindset.'cause there's, there's a delicate balance here, right? There's a delicate balance in growth mindset. Scotty s Scheffler wins. What'd he win nine times in a gold medal last year? Something like that. Uh, maybe 10 times in a gold medal. I can't remember how that all played out, but it was a lot. What does he do? He changes his grip on his putting, right? He goes, he goes to the, whatever I call it, the clog grip, I guess the traditional term is the clog grip, right? The inverted right hand grip. And it sort of, uh, made its, we, we saw it first at Tiger's tournament in December, like in that silly season event in December. And it was like, wow, Scotty just won 10 times and uh, and he, uh, and a gold medal and he's changing his, putting right. Well.

Rob Failes:

Mm-hmm.

Eric:

probably no one I would trust more to understand what they could gain out of their putting from 20 feet and in than than Scotty Scheffler and do it in a way that was extremely thoughtful, extremely probably data oriented, like he probably really knew. Where his weaknesses are, he probably understood his control of the start line, things that just weren't quite right, uh, with the traditional grip. So he goes to the, he goes to the inverted grip and. I mean, he rock. I mean, he wasn't a great at putting last year, right? He, two years ago, not great, and he didn't win a bunch, but everybody's like, Hey, if he was just average at putting, he would win every week. Last year. He is basically average at putting, and he won every week. Now he's top 15 in putting, and he's winning just by bigger margins, right? Like he's now, he won by four. It was like a ho-hum, uh, kind of thing. So what can we learn from that? What can we learn from Scotty Scheffler? Try, you know, going after a little bit. I think it's just that continu, like that dedication to continuously improving a skill, which I'm sure whatever that skill is, maybe it's start line control. I, I don't know what, what he's better at. I don't know. He, he probably tell you, but I've never heard him talk about it.

Rob Failes:

yeah.

Eric:

But he was, well, I will tell you this, it was well-defined. He knew what he was going after and he knew that this may be the thing that did it. He gave it a try. It worked. Awesome. Right? So that's different than trying something new every day, right? That's a different, that's a different story. So growth mindset is not trying something new every day, but it is being open to trying to improve through the right processes, right?

Rob Failes:

for sure. Yeah.

Eric:

So, excuse me, dry throat. Scotty, what else about Scotty do you think, Rob, that makes him great, that we can learn as, uh, normal golfers in the world?

Rob Failes:

Hmm.

Eric:

I.

Rob Failes:

I mean, I, I, I say this, and this is just my preference, but strong preference, but his rhythm is incredibly, incredibly, incredibly consistent. Like All the way through the bag from driver to iron to wedges. I mean, if you just look at the time of the swing itself and the ratio of time, it's so consistent. It's incredible. Like it just doesn't really change in any sort of situation. You never see him really speeding up. You never see him really slowing down. He's just always kind of just doing what he's doing, incredibly, incredibly, incredibly consistently. So again, some things do need to be consistent, right? We don't love the work consistency, but I think the way he holds it, right, he's got this molded grip that he's used for forever and he's just keeping the thing that probably should be consistent. Really consistent. I don't see his posture really changing much. I don't see his rhythm really changing much. It's all really, really consistent. Now, the geometry changes wildly for the shot that he's playing. He's playing a big draw, like you said, like geometry stuff. definitely changes, but the drumbeat of his swing does not. Um, and I really enjoy seeing that with him.

Eric:

You would have to imagine that he and Randy Smith worked a lot on things like routine, right? Just trying to get things consistent, day to day, swing to swing, um, and also skill training, right? Because.

Rob Failes:

Right,

Eric:

You know, a lot of people would've coached out some of that stuff with, maybe with Scotty, but I think that Randy Smith is probably really good at watching the ball go exactly where a player wants to hit it. And not saying I'm not gonna change the blueprint of that. Right? So if he can repeat that and control that and learn to have some skill with that, um, I'm gonna be, I'm gonna be totally fine. And so that, I think that we can definitely learn from,

Rob Failes:

could definitely

Eric:

I will tell you that going back to the rhythm piece.

Rob Failes:

you that going back to

Eric:

I don't watch a lot of golf on tv, especially don't watch YouTube golf, but Scotty actually did a YouTube like golf thing, um, which seems pretty outta character for him, but it was like a couple months ago with, um, grant, grant something. Grant Horvat. Or Grant Horvat. Yeah. Um, and they played at Royal Oaks and. I mean, s you can just see, and Scotty was a little rusty that day. He was like, yeah, I just gotta, I mean, it was just four days at the beach and I'm, you know, just kinda running out on the course kind of thing. And um, but you could see like that round, like it's a different deal'cause you see every single shot he's talking you through every single shot. And, um, yeah, I mean the consistency of what he does rhythm wise with his swing is just insane. It's just insane.

Rob Failes:

Unbelievable. Yeah.

Eric:

And so. I think that would be another good thing that a, that a listener could take away. Just the consistency and training the rhythm and working on the rhythm and being there present. Like you said, you have to be present on the golf course to make that happen or you're gonna be

Rob Failes:

Yes.

Eric:

right. So, um, yeah, I think that's another one. I think that those are probably the big keys there, like learning the processes, like what is it that.

Rob Failes:

this,

Eric:

from his swing or not from his, don't copy his grip. Your grip's gonna be your grip and his grip's gonna be his grip. It's not about that. It's about like what does he do in his process that makes him, and I think it really, like you said, it starts with that whole like hierarchy of what's important to him. Right.

Rob Failes:

I mean, you, you'd be hard pressed to say that he doesn't probably read lies, slopes, and winds as well as anyone out there. obviously Ted Scott's a big, big part of that, right? So, I mean, Ted's given him really good, uh, reads on, on the lies, given him really good reads on wind and slope. Um. And so we can't, we can't discount that. Right? So we don't always have a caddy walking with us. And I mean, he's got a, he's got the best probably, I would say,

Eric:

He does credit him in that video, um, with keeping him. Basically present. I don't know, I think he used the word present, but he said Ted Scott is really good about just being like, alright, Scotty, let's like, you know, let's just focus on this next shot and let you can do the, you got this. Like, he's just like, and you could see Scotty's career trajectory completely changed when he, when he started now he was very young. He's only 28 years old. Like, that's crazy, right? Um, but you know. He was a year or two on the tour and doing okay, but he wasn't like his first, the first time I think I ever heard of him was he made that Ryder Cup team and I don't watch tons of golf, but he made that Ryder Cup team. Didn't he beat it was like he beat John Rom or somebody in singles. Um,

Rob Failes:

Mm-hmm.

Eric:

was it John? I think it was John Rom who was like really hot at the time. Like he was clearly the best player in the world. And they put, um, Scotty out in the singles match against him and he beat him. And, um. I was like, okay, what's that guy's name? Schiff Scheffler kind of cool. Um, my brother had been talking about him, but he's a, he's a fanatic on the tour and they love Scotty, right?'cause he's like family friend. So pretty, pretty cool. Um, anyway, so I'm trying to think if there's anything else that really stands out about Scotty that I think it's just. Repeating his processes. Maybe get a molded grip trainer that feels really good to you, keeping in your back so you could work on your grip all the time. I don't know, I don't know how he does that, but, um, hire a great coach for sure. And stick with him and have your priorities straight. I mean, I think that's really, I mean, I'm not sitting here as a motivational speaker by any, any stretch of the imagination, but it's it when things are in order and you focus on what's relevant, I think it's, uh, I think it's easy to see that Scotty's not distracted by. The other stuff, you know, it's pretty cool. Pretty cool. I'm always rooting for him, that's for sure. And

Rob Failes:

I mean, he's, he is one of my favorite golfers right now,

Eric:

yeah, I, I like him. I like,

Rob Failes:

favorite.

Eric:

yeah, I'm a big Oberg fan. I, I think he's super cool too.

Rob Failes:

too.

Eric:

Um, so.

Rob Failes:

Yeah.

Eric:

So anyway, quick question. What makes Scotty Shuffler so great? Anything else you'd like to add to that discussion? Robbie,

Rob Failes:

No. No, I think that's good.

Eric:

awesome. Thanks for tuning in to the Golf Intervention Podcast. We'll be back with another full length episode when Robbie gets back from Hilton head on vacation. And, uh, in the meantime, hit the ball long and straight. Golf saw that hard.

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Eric Layton

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Rob Failes

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