“Long drive is a fast, fun and adrenaline endorsed sport. It’s fantastic and so much fun. You can make mistakes or poor swings but still find your way during a set to make a good powerful swing and post a good distance”. This is what Steffan Scutti, a native of Melbourne, Australia, said about long drive.
The current Australian long drive champion has been in the fitness industry for a long time. Scutti is a former basketball player who started playing golf at the age of 15 when getting diagnosed with a heart condition made his dream of pursuing a career in basketball impossible. However, dreams can change. And that’s what happened to him. He took up golf soon after his diagnosis and turned it into his new dream. His head professional introduced him to long drive and he has been in love with it ever since.
Even though he has always hit long (he was the longest hitter in his club and state team), Scutti admits that having a lot of flexibility and mobility helped him win the title back in 2019. So how does one achieve this? With lots of gym and flexibility work. Plyometric exercises are crucial for developing power. Also, hitting at least 100 balls a day. The combo of all these is what builds a foundation for a long hitter.
However, the current title holder believes that “the secret to hitting the golf ball a long distance is ground force”. In his opinion, learning how to use the ground is what makes the difference. As he puts it, “Everybody talks about rotating fast. But I believe the real secret is learning how to use the ground! ”.
Steffan Scutti definitely puts in a lot of time and effort into constantly improving and delivering perfect ball strikes, but how much of it is work and practice and how much is talent?
In his words, “Both talent and hard work is the only way to become a champion. The world has so many players and therefore it’s too difficult to win with just hard work, I believe the talent must also be there first, like Kyle Berkshire, myself I’ve always had fantastic hand eye coordination and been able to generate power with the correct motor patterns. I use a range of Reve shafts with different driver heads including the exceptional Toxic head in 3 degrees of loft. My favourite shaft to use is the raver, I have an x stiff 60g shaft tipped 2 inches, therefore playing around 3x stiff and softer closer to the middle of the shaft. I love most about reve shafts is the quality of graphite. They can be so light and still hold a high cpm and low torque. I also love the colour ranges and the look of the shafts! ”.
The ball that got him over the line and won him the Australian Championship 2019 title was a 352m(385 yards) bomb and was the longest ball of the tournament. His goal for this year is to defend his title in Perth, Western Australia, and hopefully in 5 years, be one of the top 10 players in the world.
As for a person he looks up to, Scutti says it’s the one and only Kyle Berkshire. He’s had a lot of opportunities to compete with him and it’s been not only fun, but also informative and a great learning experience. And what about his dreams?He’s aiming high and dreaming big. “My dream is to one day win the World championship. To be known as the longest hitter in the whole world and not just in Australia would be unbelievable achievement. And to travel the world playing golf. Hopefully also earning my tour card for a circuit as a professional golf on tour anywhere around the world, reach 67mps club speed and 98mps ball speed.”
Well, as Walt Disney said, “All our dreams can come true, if we have the courage to pursue them.” Steffan Scutti is definitely one of those people.
He’s talented, hard working and loves what he does. We wish you all the luck, Steffan!
