Scottie Scheffler and his longtime coach, the legendary Randy Smith, unveiled a new move at the PGA Championship this week. At least it was new to my eye, because I haven't seen the player-coach do this before at a tournament.
You can see it right here. Smith grabs hold of Scheffler's hips and helps twist them towards the target as he turns through.
This is actually a pretty common method that teachers use to encourage more hip turn through the ball. Many golfers struggle to rotate their body and turn their hips through the ball, but that can be something to fix. Nobody's trying not to turn their hips through the ball.
Smith is there to literally help Scheffler turn his hips, to emphasize the feeling that he can take to the course.
This is very important for Scheffler, because Scheffler relies on a strong release of his body—meaning his body release toward the target and up to the sky through the ball. That's how he masters his stock left-to-right fade, and it's where his Scottie shuffle comes from. When his body stops turning, the ball can start missing left.
"Feeling athletic is a really important part of my swing," he told me. "I feel like I use my body to square the clubface and see the shot that I want."
It's clearly working very well at Quail Hollow this week.