Tiger Explains To Scottie Scheffler That He Doesn't Take Divots When He's Flushing It, And Scottie's Reaction Is Priceless
This is like one of those Moe Norman folktales or something. Except this is actually what Tiger Woods does and we have modern technology, contemporary eyewitnesses and video proof to back it all up.
Scottie Scheffler won the 2022 Masters to surge to the top of the world rankings and hasn't fallen worse than No. 2 since then. Safe to say he's comfortable in his own skin and golf game. Scottie has one of the ugliest swings along with the most unconventional long game footwork you'll ever see. Doesn't matter. He's a total boss on the links and you don't want to face him even on his best day. Such a well-rounded player whose C-game is often good enough to at least grind out a top-10 finish.
So to see Scottie's face when Tiger drops the bomb on him about not taking divots whatsoever had me laughing aloud in the literal sense. Golf is a funny game like that. You can be the elite of the elite, and then the GOAT drops something on you that totally has you questioning your entire reality.
Scottie is such a noble, wholesome guy and Tiger is a notorious prankster and ball-buster. You can tell Scottie is doing the mental calculus and trying to figure out if El Tigre is fucking with him or not.
Hell, even I was wondering about it for a bit. Because like…Tiger has so much control over his swing and the way he strikes the ball that he honestly could go without taking a divot ever. On purpose. Wouldn't be the least bit shocking.
At least on iron shots, you're always told that in order to get a pure strike, you have to "hit down on the ball" and therefore take up some turf through impact. Welp. Not if you're Tiger Woods apparently!
You can get a clean, flush strike with or without a divot. it just takes a whole other level of precision to do the latter.
Thanks to this interview with Darren Clarke, though, stripe shows on the range without divots are old hat for Tiger.
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So yeah…when Tiger Woods is locked in, he's too good to take divots. I'm sure the course superintendents appreciate his decency for making their jobs easier. I wonder if this is going to be a mind game for Scottie Scheffler. Is he going to chase that consistent no-divot strike and self-sabotage in the process? Did Tiger knowingly put this in Scottie's brain so that he can kick his ass whenever he's healthy enough to return to competition. Wouldn't put it past him, right? Classic Prime Tiger savage move.
It sucks that Tiger won't be in action when the PGA Championship tees off a week from today. We're only about a month away from the U.S. Open, too, which may be where we see Tiger again. Hopefully Scottie can put this brain-breaking encounter behind him, pick the 15-time major champ's brain for more applicable advice and try to pick up the second leg of his career Grand Slam within the next five weeks or so.
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