Jimmy Walker explains how amateur golfers can improve their distance control with every club in the bag and start going low when you get dialed in with swing tips for hitting driver, irons and wedges.
That’s so unfair. One piece of advice to hit it farther. What is it? A lot of times for AMS, it’s like, man, if you just make solid contact, it’s going way further than if you just swing out of your shoes. So, it’s not complicated. Just hitting in the center of the face. Solid contact for distance, right? It sure helps. I mean, it’s it’s going to give you a lot more pop than if you’re on the toe or the heel or on the bottom or pop it up. So, I mean, solid contact is everything. All right. Well, this is his Field of Dreams, and this show is about distance. Swing 360. I want you to talk everybody through three different swings. Normal, extra distance, and then the fairway finder. Normal. I think we’re going to have the ball, you know, teed down just a little bit. Everything’s just kind of nice and simple. You’re going to give it maybe about 90% and uh little draw. Probably flying 295 or something. And it’s got a lot of roll. There’s not, you know, it’s really good spin on that. What is a fairway finder to you? Is low and it’s got just the right amount of spin and it’s got a little fade on it. And when it hits the ground, it’s it’s really taking off and it goes real straight with a tight little little fade on it. Okay. So, from face on, what are we seeing? The ball is a little further back in my stance. Maybe a little more weight set up on the left side. And uh I’m just gonna think fade. I’m not trying to really fade it. Just kind of think it. Teeing it down is going to help you do that. So just covering a little more, staying on top of it, keeping that, you know, getting the shaft down just a little bit. Delofting it. It’s going to get that thing just shooting out there and just just kind of riding that. You mentioned 90% on the normal. I’m asking you to empty the tank. And if you’re going to do it, what are people saying? Wider stance, ball more up in the up on the left foot. We’re looking for like max carry here. So, you’re probably going to see me a little more behind it, you know, getting it up. I think you’re trying to deliver maximum amount at the ball and maybe whatever happens after the fact happens. Jimmy, the distance identity crisis. A lot of people have no idea how far they hit it. What’s the most effective way to find out how far you’re carrying your driver? You got to try to find a place where you can, you know, late in the day or something where you’re out on the golf course and you can hit five drives in a row and uh you discard the bad ones. And then, you know, they’ve got cool apps on your phone where you can set a point and go see how far it was. You don’t have to have a rangefinder really. There’s little free apps on your phone and just go out and get into the middle of them and see where they’re going. So, you got to kind of figure out where your landing points are and what kind of roll you’re getting. So, that’s a pretty easy way to do it. Okay. Clubbing up, clubbing down effectively. What are you doing? What do you want to do when you club up? A lot of times when I’ve got an in between shot or a shot that is kind of a big shot, I always like to put the most aggressive swing I can on. That way I know I’m not kind of I’m not quitting on the ball. I’m not making a soft swing. I want to be I want to have really good intent with what I’m doing. So that’s what I do a lot of times on on shots like that. And then there’s some shots where you just you’ve got to hit kind of a soft finesse one shots that are, you know, inside 130 yards where you don’t need to spin it that much and you’re hitting these kind of, you know, saw off chop, you know, little ones that don’t get up as high and you’re controlling the trajectory. So that’s kind of my philosophy on hitting those types of shots. Okay. If I say to you, I I want you to effectively to club up with that club that you’ve got in your hand. Usually when I want to go further, like I can put it back in the stance just a little bit and that’s going to help me deloft it a little bit, but I can still hit down on it and create a ton of a ton of carry, especially with shorter irons and up into the mid iron. So, get a little wider with the stance. And I need to, you know, step on this one about five to eight more yards. Really hit down on it. really drive through it. And that’s going to give you just that little bit extra delofting is going to help shoot that ball out there a little bit. Okay. Now, with that same club, I want you to club down. Yeah. So, if we just want to club down on it, uh you can still hit the little soft draw or you can hit the little fade, but we’ll go with the little soft draw. I will still put it back in my stance just a little bit. I’ll choke down on it. Get a little closer down to the ball. Just shorten the back swing a little bit. and just put a nice good pass on it. Comes off a lot softer. It’s not as high. It’s more controlled. And that one landed a good like, I don’t know, nine yards short of where that last one. Okay. Now, if your trajectory, if you’re going to go up or down, let’s say from 60 to 125, what are you doing? A lot of that is touch and feel. I know, you know, when I’ve got my 60° wedge out that, you know, a 60 yard shot for me, I’m taking it back to about here and then a nice little acceleration and then that’s going to produce, you know, a certain trajectory spin and then I can play off that on on height. If I need to fly 60 but keep it lower, you just kind of put it back a little bit and you you know, you just shorten it just a fraction. And so all a lot of that takes practice and touch and and skill and then that kind of just works its way through the bag. And my 54, I know if I need a soft 90 yard shot, I choke up about an inch and a half on it. I take it about, you know, I’ve got a I’ve got a spot up here where I I know where I’m at and just make a nice swing and it pitches out there 90 yards and it’s got it’s kind of one of those one hop and stop to just maybe releasing out just a little bit. All right, grab that club that you’re going to produce that shot cuz we want to see that one. And it’s ripping out here. And the wind is actually kind of shifted. And this is your home, Victory Ranch. During the summer months, we’re at altitude above 6,500 sea level. So, whatever adjustment you’re going to make, and I say, I need you to hit a 90 yard shot. A 90 yard shot with not a lot of spin. One that might hit and release a little bit. I’m going to choke it here. So, 90 yards here. I don’t have to hit it that far. Maybe about an 82 yard shot. So, something like that. So, if I’m going to hit the 54, my feet will be just a little closer together, and I’m controlling the trajectory here. This isn’t one that’s going to hit. It’s going to take one big bounce and then kind of sit down and stop. So, we choke up on it. Inch, inch and a half, just a little open to the target. This ball’s going to have just a little slight left to right on it. Just like that. It should fly about the number we’re looking at there. No, no question about it. Now, there’s a lot of feel to that shot, and you can see how supple your arms are. What are your feels? Not a ton of lower body movement on this shot. Just a little bit of weight transfer where you just kind of you’re trying to stay kind of right in the center of the ball right here. I don’t I don’t like doing a lot. There’s none of none of that going on. You don’t need the power. You’re looking for straight and accurate. So, on that shot, I always, you know, fades are usually a little more accurate than draws, especially up close. And it’s just that’s kind of what’s this little shape produces for me. Little open. Club face a little open and just a nice soft shot like that. Well, the wind cut on us. Now, if I asked you to to max out in terms of you being comfortable with the distance with that club, what are we talking about? Well, so it it’s stock shot for me with my 54 is around 115 yards. That’s just a normal simple shot. But I mean I can get it out to 125 or 30 if we need to. And that just kind of depends on the whole situation and everything. So like I you know maybe just middle of the stance it’s going to be a lot bigger harder swing and you you still want to you’re controlling the trajectory a little bit and it’s going to shoot it out there a lot higher lot. Oh my gosh. It’s totally different shot. the exact same club. All right, Jimmy, it’s it’s ripping out here at Victory Ranch. Now, that flag there on the right. I’ve got that at 182 effectively though at altitude here, it’s about 161. So, what effect this wind is not so much down, but when you’re playing downwind, what happens to the golf ball? What adjustments do you make if you’re a high ball hitter and it’s downwind? I mean, you can hit it really far. If you’re a if you’re a flatter hitter, it the wind could have a negative effect sometimes and it knocks the ball out of the sky. So, you got to ride that line of, you know, how high do I need to hit this for the distance I’m trying to hit it? If you’re going to max one out, you I got to force carry, you know, into a green over a bunker and it’s straight down wind, you’re like, “Okay, well, I got to get this in the air to really make sure I carry. If I don’t get it high enough, the wind will it can just knock it out of the air. And that becomes really important inside about 115 20 yards because if if you’re downwind and you don’t get the ball high enough, uh it’s it just gets swatted out of the sky. So that’s kind of what you have to think about um when you’re straight down win. Okay, let me see you hit one again to that flag. Effectively playing about 161. 161. That’s just kind of a just a simple little stock eight. I’ll probably just put a little fade on it here to work it in there. Now, let’s turn it around and let’s put it into the wind where it can shoot up and also it’s going to have an enormous effect potentially on spin. So, what adjustments are you making then? Yeah, a lot of people think like, oh, you can’t swing as hard into the wind. You put too much spin on it. Well, I mean, you you can and you can’t. So into the wind is all about controlling the angle the club’s coming in, you can and your angle of attack. So if you’re controlling your face really good and you’re shallowing out and you’re you’re coming in at a relatively flatter angle, I mean, you can you can swing hard and create a flatter shot that doesn’t have as much spin and it penetrates through the wind really good. But I’ve always been one that likes to flight shots into the wind. I play them and I work it. I usually try to work it against the wind. So that way I’ve I’ I know I’m putting the right pass on the ball to hold that shot with the wind. It’s super rare I I ride it unless it’s a pen I think I can get at and I’ve got to, you know, work it around something. So, um, you know, with this shot with the with the wind off the left, I’ll play it back in the stance and keep everything down and the follow through sawed off and it keeps that ball down. Now, when you shallow out your golf swing, technically, what are you doing? A lot of it’s kind of angle of attack and it’s it’s a little wider, a little wider, lower swing. It’s not so like steep up and down. That’s the sensation I try to get. As far as, you know, if you’re up and down on it, you got a you got a good chance to get it up ball in the back of the stance. I’m definitely delofting this. That’s an eight iron. It’s not getting very high up in the air, but man, it’s got a lot of The wind’s not touching it. No, it’s not. So, if we go into swing 360 and let’s stay with that trajectory of that shot, what are people seeing? What do you think? I think they’re going to see a shorter swing. So, by putting it back, keeping everything out in front and I’m coming down like this, you know, my it’s going to look like this at contact. And, you know, there’s not a lot of loft on that. If you’re going to flight the ball down, what if anything changes? I don’t think posture. You may be a little squattier in the knees. I think maybe just a little bit. You want to if you’re going down that low and you want to hit that draw, you know, being down there and having that heel kind of, you know, that the club work for you at the ground a little bit and help you turn it over a little bit. A little right of the target if you’re trying to hit that draw. Cuz with this wind, you really have to make it you really got to make it turn. And if you’re aiming out there to the right with a left right wind, you got to commit. All right. Now, face on. If I if I tell you I want you to take it upstairs, what are people saying? Upstairs, balls up in my stance a little bit, wider swing. My attack angles, it’s not going to be maybe as steep and you’re hitting up on it a little bit. You really want to get one up high finish followthrough. I know I said, you know, it doesn’t matter what happens after the ball, but promoting that lift really helps. Oh, that’s straight up in the air. That’s a good one to end on. No wonder you like spending so much time here. This is your summer home. Thank you for having us.
