Best Golf Clubs Of 2010 Part 3 - Fairway Woods

Before I let you into the main topic, I was telling about white coloured drivers and Cobra introduced a Limited Edition last year and I was telling about the a new driver the R11 from TaylorMade which comes in a ghostly white I was wrong. Wrong in that they are not releasing one but two white drivers in the R11 and the Burner 2.0 probably from April. Have a peek here on the R11. If you are doing r5, you are behind the times. r7 too as the R9, R9 460, R9 SuperTri, Burner Super Fast have already happened so quickly.
Most drivers come in black, a few in dark hue of grey, occasionally dark blue and at times deep red. The black paint job they splashed on the crown of drivers are made glossy so that it looks attractive to you rather than Matt but you take note that glossy crowns is a source of distraction to the eyes when looking down at it with the sunlight's reflection. Immediately, a white coloured crown will not have that effect on you plus a contrasting darker shade of the club face gives you some kind of possible aid. I remembered having tested a Nickent Pipe putter where the pipe or tube was used as an alignment aid and the entire whiteness was indeed quite unique and refreshing against the backdrop of the green.
I am sure it is not just a colour gimmick and there could be more interesting ways of tweaking your hosel to change loft, trajectory and lie angle. Listen to the Tour pros here on the Burner 2.0 Super Fast and you will almost want one soon. Can't wait but do not just jump on the bandwagon as this edition has specification that I have never seen before - only 279g (that is super light) and not everyone can handle a light driver. With a long shaft and club length at 46.5 inches this is also super long as probably most of us have handled one at 45.75 inches at best so this is a good 0.75 inches more. Torque is okay at 4.5 but wait, the swing weight is at D9! Older drivers are at D1 or D2 and newer ones at D3 or D4 but D9?? How does it feel and how long does it take to used to it. Accuracy and distance always have some compensation.
Anyway, maybe they have a simpler way of doing it without screwing and screwing? Once, I was experimenting with FCT technology for the first time and while unscrewing the head too quickly it fell off and bounced on the ground. Fortunately the paint work remains meticulous.
Perhaps, I should invent a touch screen driver where on the crown is a touch screen not unlike your mobile phone. We can then just go on and touch the icon on the touch screen to adjust angles, lofts, etc. In between when there is lightning breaks or slower golfers in front, we can download games to play on your drivers. I hope Steve Jobs hearing this may go on and make an iDriver but please remember to pay me royalties.
Meantime the great thing about life is we are always given choices. You can hear people say: "I have no choice". I don't subscribe to that. May be the other option is more painful. Imagine I can only give you two drivers and they are both square it is like asking if Mick Jagger (Rolling Stones) or Steve Tyler (Aerosmith) is more handsome.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8v626CMvM5Q (Tyler - I Don't Want To Miss A Thing)
But hey they both sounded great! Those who are using square pegs please forgive me.
Ah, okay now the fairway woods in golf. When I first got to use it I was hugely impressed and excited. Now I can do some real damage on the course after a driver. By and large even as my skills and proficiency improved I found the only real joy for me for a fairway wood would be to use it occasionally as a second driver off the tee on tighter fairways. Off the deck, I could hit a fantastic shot for more than 200m at one time, then 170m or even a bad shot that got me into trouble.
There are golfers out there with a flatter swing on impact and these golfers will find a fairway wood more suited than irons or maybe even hybrids. Today's fairway woods have bigger heads than old day drivers. Some of 2010's best can be found here not just from my knowledge but also picked by some top magazines.
Callaway Diablo Edge / Diablo Octane


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DLcGFvgKrMI


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DsHpqIAGNCs


Callaway makes great clubs and the last of the fairway woods I had was the Big Bertha couple of years back which had a big head and makes a great sound. The latest Callaway wood is the Diablo Edge which has a heat-treated face with variable thickness for increased ball speed and a big sweet spot. It was built to be forgiving. The other one I haven't seen would be the Diablo Octane which I last presented was a driver that out sped the Lamborghini Gallardo (in my previous week's article). I believe they would come with a fairway wood too. If advert can sell clubs this would but then you are no Stuart Appleby. Some times, you can't even hit a Lamborghini let alone a golf ball.


Ping G15
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2ezjXBj_Sss


Before I wrote this, they have already introduced the K15 which is replacing the expensive Ping Rapture. The G15 featured a 17-4 stainless steel machined face with an external weigh pad at the sole. It's all about lower CG and getting airborne. Suitable for high handicappers but has a feel and trajectory the better players would love. You should consider a 17 degree 4 wood which can be the better than your old 15 degrees 3 wood. Golf Digest rated this the top performer with the R9.
TaylorMade R9 /R9 TP
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k1ynXnkWSXY


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NtJ5r6y3mkA


Additional weight are placed at the rear soles. Only the TP (Tour Preferred) version has adjustable hosel like the drivers to help adjust for 8 different flight trajectory. Slightly triangular in shape, what is awesome is that you can tweak its lie angle. TaylorMade has one of the most perfect sound for metal wood after all the late founder Gary Adams invented the very first.


TaylorMade Burner SuperFast
The latest version. Comes in lighter shaft and overall club weight to enhance swing speed. The previous version that I have tried were wonderful. This should be good too as Burners are created to be lighter, faster, forgiving and long. Definitely worth trying before you purchase any other but some of us may have problems when switching to lighter and longer clubs.
Titleist 909 F2/F3


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h_e4JhI5t_8


These are designed for better players. When I say better players it means really good players who plays very regularly. Flight trajectory would be lower so unless you have good swing speed you may struggle. Better players' clubs always look good because they do not need to make them bigger to be more friendly.
Others
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O0wkUjO88A8 (Cleveland)


Others to consider are the Cobra S2, Cleveland Launcher DST, Mizuno MP or the Callaway FT-IZ and the Adams Speedline Fast 10.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iTCNpCCYty0&feature=related (Cobra)


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4YvepPnkJfM (Mizuno)


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uzS0ugclYcQ (Callaway)


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Lofzan4DNE (Adams)

Do not buy any clubs without trying them after all one man's meat is another man's poison. I wish you an exciting year in golf in 2011!
Golf as in life, play as it lies.

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