Fairway Wood - TaylorMade R9

Can You Really Hit A Fairway Wood?

Do you really need a fairway wood? If so, can you really handle it? If not, why do you still carry one? If you carry one, why are you not using it? This is my poser. When a beginner bought a golf set last time they gave you a driver, a 3-wood and a 5-wood all of which we can't handle. In fact, even the more proficient players cannot claim to be a master of their fairway woods. You observe a golf game and you will realise many golfers will inevitably pull out a fairway wood to hit their second shot when they are faced with a distance to go.

Ego v Percentage

What is the percentage of their success rate? 10-30% probably. If you had used a shorter iron your percentage of a better shot increased to at least 70-80%. Besides, when you did not hit it perfectly, you give yourself a much bigger margin for error as you are less likely to go out of bounds or into the watery grave. Moreover, you are not going to put it on even with your best shot using a fairway wood. Advantage gained using a fairway wood = 10-30% and likelihood of trouble = 70-90%. What will you use now? A fairway wood of course. Why? Ego!

Muscle Memory

Firstly, learn to curb and control your ego. Next, realise that in the game of golf, we need to understand percentages. Finally, it is simply pure logic that other than a putter, the iron is going to be the most used clubs in your bag as you are going to hit them several times per hole. In essence, your muscle memory has the fondest memory of your iron swing plane more than any other club and to suddenly pull out a much longer 41 to 43 inches fairway wood with much less loft and expect to pull off a miracle shot may be asking for too much.

Second Driver

However, it is also true that most of us will be able to hit a fairway wood better, that is straighter and for some even longer than a driver. Quite simply, the reason is that a 3-wood at 15 degrees loft, 43 inches or a 5-wood at 19 degrees loft, 42 inches has more loft and a shorter length than your driver so you should in theory always hit them better than your driver. In this respect, hitting a fairway wood when teeing off is always easier than hitting it off the deck so essentially using a fairway wood as your second driver especially on a tight fairway, a fairway fraud with danger or a shorter par 4 makes sense.

Which Loft?

It is natural that you will hit your 3-wood better than your driver off a tee as your the average length and loft of your driver versus a 3-wood is 45.75 inches at 10.5 degrees for a driver while it is 43 inches at 15 degrees for a 3-wood.

It is also the same to say that a 5-wood at 19 degrees and 42 inches is easier to hit than your average 3-wood. The variant of 4 degrees will only result in a difference in distance of 20 yards depending on how it was hit. Again on percentages, it will appear likely that you will connect the sweet spot of your 5-wood more often than your 3, therefore, you may be surprised that you could hit your 5-wood straighter, further, more consistently and avoid more trouble than your 3-wood.

TaylorMade R9

TaylorMade added Flight Control Technology (FCT) to the R9 fairway wood. FCT places freedom in the hands that wields the weapon to adjust face angle, loft and lie angle to make the club appeal to you or perform better according to your swing. It is similar to the R9 driver here. I chose to talk about the R9 fairway wood because it has garnered rave reviews from various top sources and magazines plus this is not the latest model so it can save you some moolas if you can lay your hands on one.

It comes fitted with a stock Fujikura Motore 70g shaft with a head that can be adjusted at the hosel for 8 different positions. It looks good at address and feels forgiving and powerful. When you get used to it, it can be consistent and long.

The sound on impact is very nice even when hit the hardest. A sweet "ping" sound that brings joy to your ears. The advantage of FCT is that golfers can adjust their desired path of their shots. If you hook (left) set it up for a fade or when you slice (right) then set it up for a draw like a kind of auto-pilot self correction. It is like cheating officially.

Tiger Woods wanted to have the broomstick putter and belly putter banned. He does not understand old people need to bend less but I want to have driver adjustability banned because in the past I hit the standard driver well and just let the rest self-destruct with theirs then collect money. Today, many are hitting them straight and long threatening my livelihood!

Finally, I have seen golfers hitting a 5-wood up to a distance of 190 to 200m meaning that my theory is not erroneous. Your 3-wood on the other hand when hit correctly on the sweet spot will fetch you another 10-20m but surely you have to discount perhaps up to some 50% of poorer shots. You may also find some good fairway woods from Ping, Callaway and Cleveland but the R9 is up among there in overall appeal and performance with the best.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=918Jl-fTet8

Golf as in life, play as it lies.