WHAT SEPARATES SCOTTIE IS HIS FIRE. IT’S THE LOVE OF PRACTISING AND EXPERIMENTINGAND
LEARNING THINGS ON HIS OWN. IT’S DETERMINATION.
We didn’t notice it at first, but he had got out his own wedge – it was a full shot for him – and started going after the same pole. On the third ball, he hit it. It went off like a gong, and we all look up. Scottie is laughing, and he pulls another ball over and hits that one to a foot. He hit 10 more balls and hit the pole three more times. Putting? Same thing. He was always on the periphery of the practice green, watching me work with Harrison Frazar or one of the other tour guys. One Saturday afternoon after Harrison and I got done, Scottie challenged him to a putting contest. They go for more than an hour, back and forth, and they’re tied. Harrison had to leave the next morning for an event, but Scottie harassed him until he agreed to show up the next morning on his way to the airport. Long story short? Harri- son left for DFW at 9 pissed off because he let the kid con him into a sudden-death putting playoff – and lost. Why is this important? Because it speaks to the way Scottie thought about his game from the start. As Scottie’s soaking this all in, he’s not comparing himself to other 8-year-olds or other 10-year-olds. He’s comparing himself to a player on the Korn Ferry Tour, a PGA Tour winner or to the guy who just won the Open Championship. You can have a great atmosphere for learning and all kinds of talent. You can be wide open for instruction and have a supportive family. I’ve coached plenty of players who have gone on to do great things with those elements in place. When you start talking about players who are good enough to make a living at the game, the separators get smaller and smaller. What separates Scottie is his fire. It’s not just competi- tiveness – though he has more of that than anyone I’ve ever coached. It’s the pure love of practising and experimenting and learning things on your own. It’s determination. When Scottie first started taking lessons, he was using clubs designed for junior players. They were fine for what they were, but Scottie hit so many balls that he broke the faces of these cast clubs that were not designed for that kind of relentless punishment right on the sweet spot. I was affili- ated with Cleveland at the time, and they had their tour department make a full set of tour irons for
SOAKING IT IN It didn’t matter if the lesson was for him ( above ) or tour player Kris Cox ( left ), Scottie always had his ears open.
Scottie always pays attention. That might have looked different when he was little bitty – and he was little bitty – but it’s a qual- ity he has had from the beginning. We’ve been fortunate to have had a lot of good players around Royal Oaks through the years, and from almost the first day he was here, Scottie had this marvellous sense about him where he could read a situation and know when to keep his distance and when it was okay to move a little closer so that he could learn something from the tour players. When Scottie was about 10 years old, I was work- ing with Joel Edwards a bunch. Joel had won on the PGA Tour and Korn Ferry Tour, and he was in for some work on intermediate wedges. We’re grinding away, working on clipping the ball and changing trajectories for an 85-yard shot at a metal pole downrange. Scottie was sitting on the grass, cross-legged, watching us. Joel was doing great. He was really feeling better about his game, and you could feel the mood lighten. After a few more shots, Scottie had scooched closer, and he said, “Joel, are you trying to hit that pole?” The last few shots had gone a foot past, a yard past, two feet to the right. These were great shots. Tour quality. Joel nodded to him, and Scottie said, “OK,” and shuffled off down the range line.
GOLF DIGEST SOUTH AFRICA 75
JULY 2024
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