Fairway Woods

When I started golf, the golf set was fixed, dated and dead. They give you a driver (no. 1 wood), a 3-wood and a 5-wood followed by 3-9 irons and a pitching wedge, a sand wedge and a putter. That's 13 clubs when you are allowed up to 14. Some of us find that those old 3 and 5 woods are not ideal for hitting from the fairways and they have introduced a thing called a fairway wood and we wanted to experiment with it. Now fairway woods can come in different numbers for a variety of distance and therefore if you are looking at a 3-wood, it is usually a 15 degrees that comes today in 43 inches length which is just 2 inches short of an average driver length of 45 inches. It is all well and good when you use a fairway wood for teeing off but using it off the deck from the fairway is another matter.

You will often hear folks talking about how well they could tee off with a 3-wood with a result of 10-20m less than if you were to use a driver. That is the natural order of things. Why? First of all, any club that is shorter is easier to use because you are surer of hitting the sweet spot and you will get straighter direction-wise too. Most of us do not hit a driver on the sweet spot as often and thus will lose some direction and distance. This is why playing off a 3-wood you are just 10-20m shorter.

Fairway woods when handled correctly can help a golfer get pretty close to the green on par 5s and for stronger/better golfers even to put it onto the green. In this case it would be a 3-wood which for a good golfer can fetch 200-210m. Some golfers have swings that are better suited to woods while others are more ingrained for irons and for those who may be good ball strikers with their irons may sometimes struggle with their fairway woods as the swing plane require for the wood is somewhat flatter as opposed to irons being struck down at the ball. 


This is why for the majority of golfers having been playing with the irons for several holes and then to suddenly whip up a 3 fairway wood on a par 5 hoping for a good shot to get it on often runs into trouble as they may face difficulty getting in the groove of that swing. For mid-handicappers, I can guess that you could probably muster a very good hit only one out of three times - one good, one average and then one poor shot and you do not know which one comes first.

However, using a no.3 fairway wood as a second driver can be a life saver especially so when playing from a tough hole which has a narrow fairway, some bunkers in play, Out of Bounds on one side and water on the other. You will want your ball to go straighter with respectable distance.

Those who find themselves hopeless with the fairway wood should seriously consider replacing it with a hybrid. Now the hybrid is actually a direct replacement for long irons - no.2 or 3 hybrids in place of no. 2 and 3 irons as long irons are difficult to play and the hybrid as the name suggests is like a half-way house for recalcitrants. It meets half-way and has a plying characteristics of part iron and part wood with the extra meat at the back of the club giving you perimeter weighting to get your ball up and away even on thick rough. 


Hybrids can also be par 3 killers when applied properly or for that matter when used for par 4s or 5s. While a fairway wood has a lower trajectory due to its loft it will more often than not reach the green and stay there and chances of it running over is ever present. This is where the hybrid triumphs by having more of a parachute landing onto the green. It is also usually hit with a iron-like swing on impact taking the guessing work out of your swing thoughts when adjusting yourselves to use a fairway wood.

This is the reason I have personally not been carrying a fairway wood in the bag for a few years now and the only compelling reason for me to consider putting one back would be to use it as a second driver or if I could find a fairway wood so forgiving that each time I hit it there would be no disobedience. While contemplating, I am also asking myself if I should explore by trying a 16 or 17 degrees hybrid in place of a fairway wood to get it on. My current maximum of a hybrid I play is at 19 degrees which when I max out will reach 190m, just short of the green by 10-20m from a second shot.

My search will be for either one. An absolutely easy to play 15 degrees fairway wood as a second driver and pin seeking form the fairways on a par 5 or a 16-17 degrees no. 1 hybrid which due to its decreased loft may also not be as easy to use. The truth is I have yet to find one. It is advantageous if one is much taller as taller folks will get less affected by longer shafts as they are able to maintain their spine angle and swing arc better. If you found either one make sure you let me in on it. Meanwhile, I am still on this journey of discovery. I shall hope to share with you one of these days that I have found it!


Golf as in life, play as it lies.