Tiger Woods hits a tee shot last month at the PNC Championship.
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“That’s crazy.”
“It’s crazy.”
“That is crazy.”
“That’s crazy.”
Four crazies, over seven minutes, so, at the least, Grant Horvat left little question as to how he felt. He was stunned. But then he applied Tiger Woods’ move, and things clicked. The only thing crazy was the shot’s quality.
Horvat, the YouTube superstar, and Woods, the 15-time major winner, were talking on a video released Tuesday to Horvat’s channel — which you can view in full here — and they reviewed a buffet of items. They talked about how to better hit fairway woods. And whether Woods actually does take divots, a recent popular topic. But it was when Horvat asked Woods for his go-to play for hitting tee shots under pressure that the former became floored.
His answer?
Woods said he tries to hit the ball off the heel — and he tees his ball low, maybe about an inch off the ground.
But why tee it low? Woods explained.
Said Horvat on the video: “OK, I like that. Because I feel like that’s going to force me — if anything, when I go bad, my miss …”
Said Woods: “You get under.”
Said Horvat: “I go like this, yeah. So the club gets back behind me and I’ll lose it.”
Said Woods: “This keeps you on top and swinging more left and, as I said, I would try and hit it — for me, over the course of my career, I’ve always hit the ball off the heel.”
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Said Horvat: “You try and intentionally hit it off the heel?”
Said Woods: “Well, that’s how I would squeeze them out there in play. It’s not about how far I’m hitting it. It’s getting it in play. I’m hitting a heel cut.”
Said Horvat: “Interesting.”
Minutes later on the video, Woods said by teeing the ball low, there’s less “variance.”
Said Horvat: “So I’m teeing it lower and it’s actually — it’s going a lot straighter.”
Said Woods: “Less variance of being under, too on top — it’s a tighter dispersion. And that’s ultimately what we want to have — something more consistent, right? Not so many — variance between high and low, they’re tighter, so smaller adjustments. I mean, you’re so good, you just have to make slight adjustments, not be so dramatic with the adjustments. I mean, for me, the tee height kind of sets it up, right?”
Said Horvat: “Right, 100 percent. I mean, it changes my whole path. When the ball is teed up super high, I naturally go like this to try and hit up on it and I’m not flexible enough to be like Rory.”
Said Woods: “Well, up on it is great and that’s how you can hit high bomb draws and that’s great and everything. There’s a certain point to that. Now if you have to hit it the other way, the difference between this to then get it on top to hit a cut — I like to have a tighter dispersion. Granted, I’m not going to hit it as — the variance of my bomb draws is not going to be the same as my squeezer cuts. I’m going to have a smaller dispersion. Which is fine. I like that smaller dispersion.”
Said Horvat: “I just need that go-to-to-get-it-in-play swing because I just haven’t had that recently.”
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Said Woods: “Well, you have moments where you’re going to have to get a ball in play and there’s other times where you’re going to have to turn one or send one, and use wind and not use wind. But having that shot’s nice, nice to be able to have that option.”
Indeed. The question is, is this for everybody? Notably, Woods once remarked players shouldn’t watch [expletive] YouTube should they be in search for improvement — so you figure that this tip must be at least worth listening to. Which it is. But swings are different; Horvat, for example, is skilled. But would the tip frighten a higher handicap prone to topping the ball? Certainly.
Woods, though, embraces teeing it low.
An item in his golf bag emphasizes that point.
Said Horvat on the video: “I just can’t believe how low you tee it. That is crazy. And you use those short little tees.”
Said Woods: “That’s all I have.”
Said Horvat: “That’s crazy.”
Editor’s note: To watch the complete video with Horvat and Woods, please click here or scroll immediately below.
