How to choose your perfect Fairway Wood Set
Putting together a set of Fairway Woods that suits you perfectly is more tricky than most of us imagine. Learn more.
I noticed something strange with our customers.
A lot of them spend time picking the right irons, the right driver, and even trying out hybrids.
But for some reason, they often don’t pay the same attention to picking fairway woods.
In fact, we often see customers with the latest driver and irons, and 10 year old fairway woods in their bags.
Should you use the same model Fairway Woods as your Driver?
Another very interesting observation is that many golfers use the same model fairway woods as their driver.
The logic is that they want them to “feel” the same, and if they have been fitted for a driver, and they needed a low spin driver, then they should also need a low spin fairway wood right?
That logic is flawed because we usually hit our driver off the tee and fairway woods from the fairway (or rough). Also driver heads are much taller and deeper, meaning there is the opportunity to place the CG much further back and below the ball, both of which help to launch the ball high, which are helped by low spin, whereas you might want more spin to help you get the ball up of a tight lie on a fairway.
So, just using the same model as your fitted driver isn’t doing yourself any favours.
In fact, modern balls are usually low spin relative to balls from a few years back. And if you couple that with a low spin fairway wood, that could be the reason you’re struggling to hit your fairway woods off the deck.
On that note, we find that a very useful first question that we ask customers who want to get their fairway woods sorted out is, "where do you usually play your 3 wood from?"
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Determining your longest Fairway Wood
We find that a good starting point to start building out a set of fairway woods is to find out what your primary use of a 3 wood is. Is it as a backup driver, or do you use it mainly for your second shot on long par 5s for that Eagle set up? Or do you use it for both?
If you use it off the tee a lot, then you might want to go low spin and with a stronger loft, maybe 13-14.5 degrees. And if you’re going that route then we really recommend you try out the TaylorMade 300 Mini Driver, which will give you all that, and much more forgiveness than any 3 wood we have tried.
If you use your 3 wood off the deck, then you might want one with more spin and more conventionally lofted 15 degrees.
That said, if you want your longest fairway wood to work off the deck, but you struggle with a conventional 3 wood, you might want to go to a weak lofted 3 wood or a 4 wood at about 16.5 degrees loft. TaylorMade’s SIM Max D 3 wood is made to 16 degrees specifically for this purpose.
Depending on why you’re struggling off the deck, we might match the head with a heavier or lighter shaft with a mid to low kick point and trimmed to maximise your launch angle.
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Determining the other Fairway Woods in your set
Now that we have the starting point in your fairway wood set, we can go ahead and work out your distance gaps for the next few fairway woods.
If your first fairway wood is a strong 3 wood or Mini Driver, then your next club will likely be a 4 wood at around 16.5 degrees, and then a 7 wood, hybrid or your irons
If your first fairway wood is a standard 3 wood, then you would typically go with a 5 wood as your next club, and thereafter a 7 wood or hybrid or your irons
If you went with a weak lofted 3 wood or a 4 wood for your first fairway wood, then a good next club will be a 7 wood.
A number of our customers, particularly seniors, have been surprised at how well they hit a 7 wood. With lower swing speeds the additional loft really helps.
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👉 Click here to book your fitting session with All Bonuses (includes 1 hour, $125 fitting fee waived upon purchase of any club, and Free 3 Session 12 month Smashing Fits Guarantee) (This link is to our Whatsapp, we will get back to you within a day.)
Determining your shortest Fairway Wood
There’s no fixed answer for that because there’s golfers who prefer fairway woods and golfers who prefer hitting irons. And then there’s hybrids, and golfers who love them and golfers who hate them.
A good rule of thumb is to find the longest iron that you can hit consistently. Then go and try a bunch of hybrids and fairway woods to fill the gap between your irons and you long fairway woods.
What’s important is that you play better golf with the 14 clubs in your bag.
👉 Click here to book your club Demo (15 mins, Free)
👉 Click here to book your fitting session with All Bonuses (includes 1 hour, $125 fitting fee waived upon purchase of any club, and Free 3 Session 12 month Smashing Fits Guarantee) (This link is to our Whatsapp, we will get back to you within a day.)
Always try your clubs before you buy, and ideally buy them as a set
At Smashing Drives' Custom Shop, you'll be able to try out any club with any shaft, at our golf simulation room, as well as our full length driving range.
We’re also the Custom Shop for TaylorMade, Titleist, Mizuno, Srixon, and numerous other brands including a wide range of shafts.
Plus, our Smashing Fits system enables you to try any head with any shaft, so you can find the perfect clubs, perfectly fitted for you
Our Master Fitter, Jef, has fitted Tour Professionals and thousands of amateurs.
We stand by our fitting with our 12 month Distance & Direction Guarantee.
We will never try to sell you something you don't need.
When you purchase from us, you get a 12 month Distance & Direction Guarantee. Over 3 sessions, we will tune your distance and direction for you. Pushing you products is counter productive for us.
All clubs purchased from us will enjoy a full fitting reimbursement plus the 12 month Distance & Direction Guarantee free.
👉 Click here to book your club Demo (15 mins, Free)
👉 Click here to book your fitting session with All Bonuses (includes 1 hour, $125 fitting fee waived upon purchase of any club, and Free 3 Session 12 month Smashing Fits Guarantee) (This link is to our Whatsapp, we will get back to you within a day.)