Tiger Explains His Rationale Behind ‘No Divot’ Convo with Scottie Scheffler

Tiger Woods recently explained his “no divot” conversation with Scottie Scheffler that went viral earlier this year.

Over the Summer, a bit of dialogue between Woods and Scheffler went viral as it Scottie questioned Tiger’s lack of a divot during a TaylorMade promotional video that showed several pros striking balls on a range.

Scheffler was baffled by Woods’s lack of a divot on the range, and asked why he was not taking one. Tiger’s response was simple: when he’s flushing the ball, he does not take a divot. This was an indication that he was striking the ball extremely well.

But golfers responded with serious skepticism, citing past instances where Woods has taken some of the most impressive beaver tails in the history of professional golf.

In a recent TaylorMade video, Woods explained his conversation with Scheffler, stating that when he was younger, his natural shot was a draw, not requiring him to be super shallow when he initiated and completed his downswing as he would be if he played a cut. Instead, he was incredibly shallow, and with most clubs, especially long irons, he was more likely to barely scrape the grass when he reached impact.

Woods said:

“Early in my career, I was very ‘zeroed.’ I was wide and wide: wide on the backswing, wide on the throughswing. So, it was actually hard for me to take a divot when I was hitting it really well, just because I was ‘zeroed.’ And at that time, early 2000s, mid-2000s, even late ’90s, my natural shot was a draw. So, obviously, with a draw, you’re not going to be swinging left, you don’t have to be that steep.

So, yes, I didn’t take a lot of divots, I would stand there and hit golf balls for an entire day and you really couldn’t see where I was hitting golf balls. Especially with long irons, anything up, just because I was hitting draws. It would have been totally different if I was hitting punch cuts, then you’re going to see divots. But my natural shot was a draw.”

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Woods is one of the best iron players of all time in terms of ball striking, and while his whole game was complete, he was known for having incredible shot shaping and being able to manipulate his irons so well in certain scenarios.

Cover Image via Dallas Morning News