Tiger Woods made the stinger famous. The low-launching, penetrating shot is perfect for windy conditions and situations where you need to keep the ball under an obstacle. On the simulator at the SoFi Center, golfers playing in the TGL and WTGL leagues have to hit stingers off the tee on the Stinger hole. A massive rock formation sits between players and the fairway, forcing them to keep their tee balls lower than 40 feet.
At the SoFi Center, Gaby Lopez gave me a lesson on how to hit this shot. It’s not a shot I’d attempted before, but her tips had me hitting this low-launching, sizzling shot within a minute.
“The first thing that I like to do is narrow my stance,” Lopez explains. “I grip down on it, and then I lean a little more on my left leg, and what I’m doing is almost like a three-quarter swing with a low three-quarter finish.”
Crucially, Lopez says that you have keep your torso leaning towards the target. As soon as your torso shifts back, the ball is going to launch up in the air.
During the swing, Lopez says, “you can be as aggressive as you want.”
I have a tendency to hit up on the ball, so I was nervous to try this shot. But really feeling my weight posted up on the left side and keeping the finish short and low helped my torso stay forward throughout the swing. Which means I was able to hit it with the descending blow necessary to keep the shot low.
Give Lopez’s tips a try, and you’ll master the stinger in no time.
