Jimmy Walker using a 42" driver in Hawaii

[kpaulhus]

Quote

 

KAPALUA, Hawaii – At this week’s SBS Tournament of Champions, Jimmy Walker has a new driver in the bag. It’s just a little harder to locate among the rest of his clubs.

The reason? Well, Walker may have landed his first major championship in 2016, but he wasn’t very pleased with his driving accuracy stats. He hit only 48 percent of his fairways, ranking 183rd on Tour. So at home in Texas a few weeks ago, he came up with an idea: He summoned a neighbor, and off they went to the garage, taking a saw, duct-taping a grip and hacking off two inches from the 44-inch Titleist 917D2 driver with which Walker had won the PGA at Baltusrol in July.

Once the club was shortened to 42 inches, Walker built up the end of the shaft with a little extra tape, threw a new grip on, and proceeded with his experiment, figuring that a shorter, 42-inch driver (most of today’s standard drivers are 44 and 45 inches) would give him better control of his golf ball.

Two things to note: One, the experiment worked nicely on Thursday, as Walker shot 8-under 65 to take the first-round lead at the SBS Tournament of Champions. (Sidenote: Kapalua’s Plantation Course is wide open, one of the most friendly driving courses on the Tour, so don’t take too much stock in Walker hitting 11 of 15 fairways; that tied him for 16th among 32 players.)

 

This is quite interesting to me. Funny I read in another article that he actually had a buddy use a hack saw to cut his old driver down, then put a bunch of lead tape on it to get the swing weight right. Jimmy claims he has much better "feel".

This kind of contradicts the 45+ driver shaft length push for more distance. I know Taylormade had their mini driver and @mchepp used something like it in the Newport Cup when he was my partner. I guess to Jimmy, its more about hitting fairways than distance. 

[MrGolfguy67]

Dynomite!!!

[Golfingdad]

Not long after NC I cut down two of my drivers as well.  Just like Jimmy, I used a hacksaw to chop my BB Alpha and my G30 down to about 44".  I also choke up on it at least about an inch. (42 seems a bit extreme, though, for a creaky middle aged guy)

Im not very discerning apparently, though, because I didn't feel the need to change the swingweight.

[kpaulhus]

32 minutes ago, Golfingdad said:

Not long after NC I cut down two of my drivers as well.  Just like Jimmy, I used a hacksaw to chop my BB Alpha and my G30 down to about 44".  I also choke up on it at least about an inch. (42 seems a bit extreme, though, for a creaky middle aged guy)

Im not very discerning apparently, though, because I didn't feel the need to change the swingweight.

Did you notice much if any distance loss? I usually separate myself from the field with my driver and having shorter scoring clubs into greens. Even LSW highlights the importance of being long off the tee.

[Gunther]

32 minutes ago, Golfingdad said:

Not long after NC I cut down two of my drivers as well.  Just like Jimmy, I used a hacksaw to chop my BB Alpha and my G30 down to about 44".  I also choke up on it at least about an inch. (42 seems a bit extreme, though, for a creaky middle aged guy)

Im not very discerning apparently, though, because I didn't feel the need to change the swingweight.

Curious about results.  I went from 46 to 45, thinking about going to 44.  I know Tiger used a 43 for much of his early career, so I may do that too.

Are you more accurate?  Flushing it more often?  Impact on distance?  Has not messing with swing weight had an effect?

[Golfingdad]

6 minutes ago, kpaulhus said:

Did you notice much if any distance loss? I usually separate myself from the field with my driver and having shorter scoring clubs into greens. Even LSW highlights the importance of being long off the tee.

None, I actually gained distance.  But here's the key; the reason it worked is because I started hitting the center of the face often, whereas previously I wasn't doing that.

If I could hit it solid without choking up or hit it solid with 45", Im sure I would gain some distance.  

[Golfingdad]

16 minutes ago, Gunther said:

Curious about results.  I went from 46 to 45, thinking about going to 44.  I know Tiger used a 43 for much of his early career, so I may do that too.

Are you more accurate?  Flushing it more often?  Impact on distance?  Has not messing with swing weight had an effect?

Whoops, didn't see your questions.

I guess I kinda already answered them above though.  Regarding the swingweight, no effect that I noticed.  I think I'm just not that in tune with the feel though because it didn't really notice any difference.

[Gunther]

45 minutes ago, Golfingdad said:

Whoops, didn't see your questions.

I guess I kinda already answered them above though.  Regarding the swingweight, no effect that I noticed.  I think I'm just not that in tune with the feel though because it didn't really notice any difference.

Gaining distance doesn't surprise me but it's nice to see it corroborated.  I'm sure I'll flush it more often with a shorter club so anticipate an increase in distance as well as accuracy.  I doubt Jimmy W will see an increase in distance, however, cuz these pro could flush a 50" most of the time.

Scary to do on my own though, because of skewing the swing weight, so that was also nice to hear.

Think I'll make this happen, thanks for the nudge.

Edited January 6, 2017 by Gunther

[Golfingdad]

3 hours ago, Gunther said:

Gaining distance doesn't surprise me but it's nice to see it corroborated.  I'm sure I'll flush it more often with a shorter club so anticipate an increase in distance as well as accuracy.  I doubt Jimmy W will see an increase in distance, however, cuz these pro could flush a 50" most of the time.

Scary to do on my own though, because of skewing the swing weight, so that was also nice to hear.

Think I'll make this happen, thanks for the nudge.

Hope it works out for you!  If so, then maybe you consider throwing your hat into the ring for the west coast Newport Cup team.

[Buckeyebowman]

I don't remember where I read it, but there was an article back when the "long Driver" phase of golf was getting underway. The article went on to state that their research had shown the most amateurs could swing a shorter Driver just as fast, or faster, than the longer ones. And have better control of the club.

It also went on to report that Tiger was still swinging his 43" Driver with a steel shaft.

As far as the pros go, most of them hit the ball plenty long without needing help. At the last WGC Bridgestone championship I attended, guys were bombing the ball just stupid long! What they don't want is to be in the rough, or the trees. And shorter clubs are easier to hit straight.

As the venerable Harvey Penick said, "The woods are full of long hitters!"

[Gunther]

41 minutes ago, Golfingdad said:

Hope it works out for you!  If so, then maybe you consider throwing your hat into the ring for the west coast Newport Cup team.

Ha, actually, I don't think I'm too far off a competetive game.  This might just be the lynchpin.

[mchepp]

I use mine as a sudo 3w. Plus mine has a 3 wood shaft. I still have a regular length driver which when hit properly goes another 10-15 yards longer.

[mvmac]

23 hours ago, kpaulhus said:

He hit only 48 percent of his fairways, ranking 183rd on Tour.

If the problem persists, when his driver gets to below 40" he might have to start blaming his swing  #bandaid

[Golfingdad]

He sure seemed to like hitting the ball low yesterday.  Like, realllly low.  His tee shot on 13 barely seemed to get above head high.  It would seem to me that if the driver is only 42" AND you're doing something other than trying to bomb it as far as possible, that you're losing enough distance that youd probably be ok just hitting 3 wood most of the time a la Henrik Stenson.

[natureboy]

3 hours ago, Golfingdad said:

He sure seemed to like hitting the ball low yesterday.  Like, realllly low.  His tee shot on 13 barely seemed to get above head high.  It would seem to me that if the driver is only 42" AND you're doing something other than trying to bomb it as far as possible, that you're losing enough distance that youd probably be ok just hitting 3 wood most of the time a la Henrik Stenson.

Maybe. The larger driver head is still a bit more forgiving and less spin-producing. I wonder if the smaller head may not help Stenson 'feel' the clubhead better than with the driver for more precise hits. He avoids driver because he had the driver yips at one time and finds 3-wood more reliable and perhaps easier to fit to doglegs vs. his very long (but more stress-inducing to shape for him) driver.

[b101]

One of the very first things the guy did at my driver fitting was to put me in a 44.5" shaft. Tie that in with the right shaft and I'm finding the middle of the face more, feel more control and can swing faster. Might be a bit counter-intuitive in one sense, but I don't think I'd go back to a 46" shaft.

[SavvySwede]

42" sounds too extreme for one of the best players in the world. If poor strikes are that much of an issue he should look to his swing first. If he is having trouble controlling the face angle I don't think a shorter club is going to help with that.