You may have noticed that Rory McIlroy has been leaning on a new-ish shot off the tee — especially when the wind starts to swirl. Some call it a low bullet, others refer to it as a stinger. Whatever its name, the goal is the same: a low-launching drive that maintains a stable, piercing ball flight that can cut through the breeze instead of ballooning.
It’s a shot that McIlroy says he’s been refining over the past few years.
“I think I started to use it a lot more at Pinehurst in ’24,” he said at the Genesis Invitational last month. “I started to hit the low one there. I’ve always had it, but I started to hit it more.”
What started as a specialty shot has quickly become an old reliable for the five-time major champion.
“When I start to hit it more, I start to become more confident with it, and it’s become more of a go-to shot,” he said, “It’s something I’ll use a few times a round.”
It’s no surprise McIlroy relies on this shot. The low bullet drive is designed to do one thing: find the fairway — regardless of the conditions.
Whether you’re playing baked-out courses where every extra yard of roll counts, in gusty winds that demand trajectory control or a tee shot that leaves little margin for error — this stinger-style shot delivers.
And, says Keith Bennett, an instructor at McCormick Ranch Golf Club in Scottsdale, Ariz., with a few setup adjustments, you can master this tour-trusted shot and leave it in the short grass every time. Here’s how to pull it off.
Go low like Rory.
getty images
1. Tee it low(ish)
The first step in mastering McIlroy’s low bullet drive is finding the right tee height. To start, Bennett recommends teeing up your driver with the top of the ball just below the crown of the club.
Once you’ve dialed in this shot, you can experiment with lowering your tee height for an even more dramatic stinger effect — but keep in mind, the lower you tee it, the smaller your margin for error.
2. Set up for a shallow angle of attack
Typically, a driver calls for a wider stance to encourage an upward angle of attack. But off a low tee, that same wide base can cause you to hit it lower on the face, leading to a weak shot that slices uncontrollably or barely dribbles into the fairway.
Instead, Bennett says to narrow your stance by pulling your back foot in a few inches. This adjustment will bring your weight slightly forward and allow your sternum and pelvis to naturally align, creating a more neutral spine position.
“A lot of people will get in their normal driver set up with a lot of tilt to the right [away from the target],” he says, “But that ball is lower. With the tilt to the right [away from the target], the club is more likely to be moving away from the ground by the time it gets to the ball, but we don’t have the high tee height like we’re used to so we’re going to catch it low on the face.”
Before taking the club back, check that your shoulders are in a neutral position; your lead and trail shoulders should feel level. If your lead shoulder feels higher, you may still be unintentionally setting up with spine tilt.
3. Aim for a slice
Your last set up key is to aim left. Not only does this help you account for the low, fading ball flight you’ll produce, but it will also help with ball position. As Bennett explains, when you aim left (for right-handed golfers), it naturally pulls the ball position back in the stance.
“This is going to help us catch it in the right part of our ‘swing circle’ so that we can make the contact that we’re after,” Bennett says.
Remember, the goal for this shot is for the clubface to enter impact at the ideal point in your swing arc where it’s moving on a shallow — or even slightly descending — angle of attack.
Aiming left sets you up to achieve that proper angle of attack, time your swing properly and create crisp contact every time.
4. Finish low
While each of these adjustments puts you in position to execute this shot properly, Bennett says there’s one final swing key that every player should keep in mind to truly master McIlroy’s low-bullet drive: finish low.
“The most important thing is the intention for your follow through,” he says.
Remember, this isn’t your stock driver swing. Instead of trying to “swing up” to launch it high, Bennett says to feel the opposite — groove the feeling of your clubhead staying low as it approaches impact and continuing low through the strike.
“It can help to think about getting your weight forward to keep the clubhead low, or you can also think about keeping the clubhead low which is naturally going to pull you onto your lead side,” he says. “Each player is going to have a different cue that resonates with them.”
One of the simplest ways to train that feel is with slow, deliberate rehearsal swings. Focus on keeping the clubhead low through the strike, extending down the target line rather than up into a high finish. You can even set your driver head a few inches in front of the ball and practice making a low, level exit to really ingrain the feeling.
However you choose to frame it, the objective is the same: control the bottom of your swing arc to control your ball flight. Do that, and you’ll be hitting low bullets like Rory in no time.
