Choosing a fairway wood is a bit like buying a new car. Looks and image are important, no question. But it’s best to try out the new piece first. In the end, deciding which fairway wood or fairway woods you really want can be harder than choosing a driver. With more choices in terms of loft, grip and head size, it’s not as easy to find the right club for your game.
Fairway woods at a glance – what do I need to know as a golfer?
- Main task of the fairway wood – tee shot, fairway or approach to the green?
- The decision – fairway wood or hybrid?
- As with the driver – the settings on the fairway wood?
- Material – What components should the fairway wood be made of?
- Shaft – what is important for the fairway wood?
If you are looking for a fairway wood, you first have to decide what you need it for. Do I want to generate more height on my shots? Do I need a club to replace my 3-iron? Do I want a new club to hit off the tee or do I simply need a club to hit out of the rough?
Main task of the fairway wood – tee shot, fairway or approach to the green?
As fairway woods have more loft and a shorter shaft than a driver, it is easier to hit the ball with them and the shots can be executed more precisely. Sometimes a 3-wood – in the right hands – can hit the ball just as far as a driver.
Before buying a club, you should think about what the main purpose of the fairway wood is. Do I want to cover a longer distance with my club or should it be more of an approach shot to the green? If the latter, it makes sense to have a fairway wood with a higher loft in your bag so that the ball lands from a steeper angle and stops more quickly after impact.
Our experts at HIO Fitting advise golfers to have realistic expectations when using woods. Especially woods with little loft (e.g. wood#3 with 15°) will only really go up from the tee for a minority players. From the fairway, there is often not enough power in the swing to maneuver the ball – with a very flat launch angle (due to the low loft) – to an efficient height for a decent carry distance. For many, a 3 wood “off the deck” will fly rather flat and you have to rely on a lot of roll. Therefore, when choosing a club, you should always consider whether the current set-up makes sense. If you can reach the green with a lot of roll in the summer on hard ground, the same shot may no longer make sense in the fall or spring on a soft fairway. Without roll, a 3 wood can then also fly shorter in terms of total distance than, for example, a 5 wood which flies higher and achieves more distance “carry”.
This should also be accepted. Unfortunately, golfers often adapt their swing to a trajectory that is too flat. Although a “open clubface” or creates more height, this is only because a high “dynamic loft” has been created at impact. So you could have gone straight for a 5 wood or even a hybrid 5 and taken significantly less risk and also not adjusted your swing to the wrong loft of the club.
As a fairway wood has a more “bulbous” head than an iron, more backspin is generally generated at impact. This helps the ball to gain height or “stay in the air”. Of course, the lighter head in combination with a longer shaft also enables the fairway wood to achieve a higher club head speed than an iron.
The nomenclature of the clubs is therefore somewhat confusing. A 5-wood flies significantly further and should never be used interchangeably with a 5-iron.
Some guidelines for clubs that should fly a similar distance. Of course, this varies from person to person:
- a 4-wood roughly replaces a 2-iron,
- a 5-wood replaces a 3-iron,
- a 7-wood replaces the 4-iron and
- a 9-iron replaces a 5-iron.
The challenge of reaching the par-5 hole in two strokes
If you really want to know: some holes are simply too far away to reach with a skillful drive and an iron shot. This is where the fairway wood comes into play. If you plan to do this more often, i.e. hit with the wood from the fairway, you should make sure that the head of the fairway wood is fairly flat. This is one of the biggest advantages of a new purchase. According to our experts at HIO Fitting, all modern fairway woods are equipped with a “flat design” and are therefore much easier to hit than clubs that are 10 years old or more.
Of course, you are still able to hit from the tee, but the flatter club head makes it easier to hit from difficult positions on the fairway.
Fairway wood or hybrid club?
Whether the fairway wood or the hybrid is the right one is different for every player and always depends on what exactly you expect from the golf club set. Most players have a driver in their bag, then one or two fairway woods and then one or two hybrid clubs.
Fairway woods are better suited for shots from the tee. However, if the ball lands in the rough, it is wiser to go for a hybrid. The smaller and heavier heads of these clubs can go through the ball better from this unfavorable position, making the shot easier for you. However, it is important to remember that you can hit further with a 19° fairway club than with a 19° hybrid because the head can generate more speed and the shaft is usually longer.
Adjustability of the fairway wood
Many manufacturers now also rely on the individual adjustability of the wood to give players the opportunity to adapt their club to their swing. The individual adjustability of fairway woods can be divided into three categories:
Loft
With modern heads, golfers can usually adjust the loft of the club using an adjustable hosel (connecting piece between the club head and shaft). To adjust the loft, a screw on the golf heel (part of the club head closest to the shaft) is loosened, connecting the shaft to the club head, and then the angle of inclination is adjusted. This allows the loft to be made either higher or lower. The loft can usually be adjusted up or down by up to two degrees.
Adjustable clubs are designed to optimize the trajectory of the ball. It is therefore very important to make sure that the loft and lie angle of the fairway wood are adjusted to suit the shot behavior.
Weight
Perhaps not quite as widespread as with drivers, but some manufacturers now offer the option of manipulating the overall weight of the club head in their fairway woods and hybrids with smaller weights and thus adjusting the trajectory of the ball. However, this is usually only done during a professional fitting, which is why you should check beforehand to what extent this fine-tuning option is available at all and rely on the support of an expert when fine-tuning.
Conclusion on fine-tuning from our experts at HIO Fitting
It is important to classify the influence correctly. If you adjust the loft of the fairway wood by one degree or change the weighting, you should not expect any huge changes in the ball flight. If you play a handicap over 5, the influence of the adjustment will not be visible to the naked eye. The influence on the ball flight of the path and clubface (= golf swing) is much greater and as long as you don’t have absolutely consistent golf shots, you shouldn’t expect much from fine-tuning.
Similarly, a ball flight that is too high, for example, should not always be automatically corrected with a lower loft. The error could be in the swing and so you would adjust the angle to a faulty movement.
Ideally, you find a setting where your swing fits the material perfectly and play with it “all summer”. However, “raising” the angle for the cold season is still recommended for all golfers. You then deliberately forego roll in order to generate a little more carry distance.
Material – What components should the fairway wood be made of?
Steel
Most fairway woods on the market have a steel club head, mainly because the head does not have to be as large as on a driver. Steel provides a strong and yielding element for the club and can be processed as a relatively inexpensive material.
Titanium
The light weight of titanium makes it a useful material for fairway woods or as a club face material and is being used more and more in the production of clubs.
Due to the light weight, the weight of the club can be kept lower. At the same time, the center of gravity of the club is lower and wider and can be moved further back. This makes it possible to produce clubs that can be hit a long way and at the same time are forgiving of minor errors. Like most titanium clubs, this is of course often reflected in the high price.
Carbon, tungsten and blends
Modern fairway woods are usually made of different materials. Lighter materials, such as carbon, which is used on the crown or sole of the club head, are intended to reduce the weight of the head. The weight thus saved can then be strategically repositioned in the club head with heavy metals (e.g. tungsten screws). This allows the club to tolerate poorly hit balls much better or tendencies to draw or fade can be adjusted.
Shaft – what is important for a fairway wood?
The shaft is clearly an indispensable part of the club and is even more important in a fairway wood than usual. Many hybrid and utility clubs tend to have a shorter shaft in play and therefore have the advantage that these clubs can be played more like an iron and therefore offer more control. The shaft of the fairway wood is longer and lighter so that more speed can be generated.
All fairway woods now come with a graphite shaft, as this makes them lighter and allows different bends to be adapted to all swing speeds.