Fairway Wood

Posted by Marina

On 31/08/2023

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When considering what woods to purchase, the first question to ponder is - what do you want the fairway wood for? The most popular answers to this are likely to be:

To hit off the tee

Having more loft, fairway woods are easier to hit than driver – they don’t go quite as far, but a 3 wood in the right hands can still travel well in excess of 220 yards. If you’re looking for an easy-hitting alternative to a driver, then you’ll probably want a 2,3 or 4 wood.

To replace long irons from the fairway

Many people would rather hit a high-lofted wood into a green than a 2,3 or 4 iron. In which case 5 woods and above are what you’re after. The larger clubhead of a fairway wood compared to an iron makes it easier to achieve more distance without over-swinging. As a rough rule of thumb, a 5 wood would replace a 2 iron, a 7 wood the 3 or 4 iron, a 9 wood the 5 iron.

To reach par 5s in two

If you want to go for glory, there are some holes which are just too long to reach with a drive and a long iron. The only thing which will get you there in two is a drive and a fairway wood. For this, you’re probably looking for a 3 or 4 wood. And if you expect predominately to use the 3 or 4 wood from the fairway, look for one where the head is fairly shallow. You’ll still be able to use it from the tee, but a lower profile head will be better for hitting from tighter lies.

So Which Fairway Wood?

Fairway woods have different loft options and you can choose to have multiple woods in your club set if it helps you cover the distance gaps needed in your golf game.

The 3 wood is a 13 degree club loft, the 5 wood is a 15 degree loft, and the 7 wood is a 17 degree loft. An easy way to remember this is to just ad a “1” in front of it for the degrees loft.

Beginner golfers tend to perform better with a wood as opposed to their driver so it’s pretty common to carry a 3 wood in your bag for tee shots in addition to using it for fairway shots on long par 4’s and par 5’s.

After the 3 wood, you may choose to have a 7 wood to cover the next distance gap between a 3 wood and a hybrid (19-21 degree loft) or 4 iron. For example, on long par 3’s that stretch 180 meters, a hyrbid or 7 wood could be used if it’s easier to hit than trying to hit a 4 iron 180 meters.

Here you can find some of our available Fairway Woods.