The golf world has been looking forward to this week, the restart of the PGA Tour season, since the Players Championship was forced to be canceled after just one round was completed March 12. However, Jimmy Walker spent some of his time during the COVID-19 layoff looking back and experimenting with drivers and fairway woods fitted with steel shafts.
According to Titleist, Walker, 41, the winner of the 2016 PGA Championship, is planning to use an 8.5-degree, 44-inch Titleist TS3 driver and 15-degree, 42-inch TS3 3-wood when he returns to action this week at Colonial Country Club in the Charles Schwab Challenge. However, both clubs have a True Temper Dynamic Gold X100 shaft. At the Players Championship in March, Walker used the same clubs but the driver had a Graphite Design Tour AD DI 8 shaft and the 3-wood had a Fujikura Rombax P95 shaft. Both of those shafts are graphite.
According to Titleist, Walker began tinkering with an old Titleist 970 fairway wood while he was at home and loved the weight and the feel of the steel shaft.
“(I) was blown away by how well it worked,” he said to Titleist reps. “I remember it was the first club I ever had built by Titleist when I qualified for the Byron Nelson as an amateur in 2001. It was the first PGA Tour event I ever played. I had that club in the bag for the longest time.”
J.J. VanWezenbeeck, Titleist’s director of player promotions, spoke with Walker on the phone and was able to build him a new fairway wood and driver after he found the old steel shafts. Walker tried them and immediately decided to put them into play.
According to TrackMan, Walker’s clubhead speed is in the high 170s and his driver spin rate is typically between 2,200 and 2,300 revolutions per minute. While he has lost some distance with the 3-wood, Walker feels he has more control and the gapping between his driver and his 3-iron is better.
[jwplayer gedK1oWQ-vgFm21H3]
[lawrence-related id=778047528,778047483,778047405]
