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Lots of different clubs are available on the market, and each one is specifically designed to make it easier for you to move your ball towards the green and into the cup even in challenging conditions. But as any good golfer should know, one of the best strategies for dominating a course would be to avoid sticky situations all together. This means making the most of each swing you have on the fairway so that you don’t end up in a bunker or on the rough.
Fairway woods are the clubs you should invest in if you want to steer clear of the rough all together. Designed to help you move through the fairway with precision and speed, maximizing the use of fairway woods can help reduce the time you spend trying to get out of a bunker.
Looking to invest in the best fairway woods for your bag? Read on to learn some of the important information you need to know before you settle on a purchase.
A common question that golfers ask is whether they should get a hybrid in favor of a fairway wood. The simple answer is that it depends.
Remember, while each of these different golf clubs are designed for a specific purpose, there is no rule that dictates what you should choose when confronted with a specific situation. So even if it seems that a shot would be best addressed with an iron, if you feel that you could get the results you want with a wood, no one can and should stop you.
So the choice between fairway woods and hybrids really just depends on what you think you’d benefit from the most. Essentially, the difference between the two is that woods tend to have longer shafts and larger heads. So if you’re hitting a ball from the fairway, or even teeing off on a shorter course, then a fairway wood can be a suitable choice.
Hybrids are better suited for use through the rough because their smaller heads allow golfers to get out of bad lies more easily. But again, you should consider the fact that these are mere suggestions. If you feel more comfortable using a long, large-headed wood for the rough, then that’s entirely up to your preference.
Woods have evolved quite a lot since they were first introduced into the golfing sport. These days, woods are no longer even made of wood, and some designs can come with a variety of features that improve playability, ease of use, and performance.
Manufacturers typically leverage the adjustability feature for drivers because slight differences to the specifications of a driver can cause significant change in distance, speed, and power. But these days, it’s not uncommon to find a fairway wood that uses features that help users fine-tune its performance.
The adjustability of a fairway wood can typically be divided into three factors - the loft, the face angle, and the weight. Slight changes in these three factors can make significant differences in the way your fairway wood performs, so an adjustable club is easily more versatile for a variety of conditions. In the right hands, an adjustable fairway wood might be the only wood a person needs.
There are three main materials that you might find used for a fairway wood club head. These are steel, titanium, composite. Steel is most common, and is durable, forgiving, and affordable since it’s fairly easy to source. Titanium heads are most forgiving, and are lightweight. They also give significantly more feedback so they’re great for players who want to calibrate their swing and achieve consistency.
Finally, composite materials have also started to move into the market. They’re the easiest to use because composite can be weighted more easily for efficient energy transfer and an effortless swing.
These days, you’ll find that most irons and even hybrids have shorter shafts. This simple length adjustment helps give players more control as they swing, bringing the player ‘closer’ to the impact. But the thing about woods is that they’re not desiged for control, and are instead created with a silhouette that’s intended to maximize distance. So the general notion when buying a fairway wood is that it should be long.
There are lots of different materials used for shafts, but for fairway woods, the best would be graphite. These lighter shafts tend to have more flex, and thus transfer much more distance. Although, it’s important to keep in mind that graphite also tends to sacrifice control and feedback, so it really does take quite a bit of practice to get used to fairway woods.
The common idea is that irons are easier to hit than fairway woods. So for the Founders Club Fresh Metal Golf Clubs Fairway Woods to claim that they’re easier to hit than irons make them a bit of a controversial club. But for as outlandish as that might seem for most golfers, it seems these woods have actually achieved just that. That’s why we rank it not only as the best fairway woods on our list, but the best fairway woods for high handicappers as well.
These woods are made with steel heads and graphite shafts, so they’re lightweight and durable. This also helps improve power and energy transfer, allowing you to achieve greater distance at maximum swing strength. And while woods have a notorious reputation for being hard to control, these Founders Club fairway woods are far easier to become accustomed to. This is mainly thanks to the brand’s popular Founders Club rails and easy lie sole that help optimize strike to generate the right outcomes even for high and mid handicappers.
Not to be outdone, the Callaway Golf brand has come out with their revolutionary fairway wood - the 2018 Rogue. This sleek, state-of-the-art club features Callaway Golf’s newest Jailbreak Technology which works together with their Face Cup system to increase impact load on the face of the head and generate more speed for greater distance.
The 2018 Rogue Fairway Woods also feature a low forward COG made possible by the club’s Internal Standing Wave Technology. This ultimately results to consistently high launch shots with minimal spin. Finally, the clubs feature an industry leading Aero Package, minimizing drag and letting users enjoy the power of their swing force without having to exert too much effort.
With its tech-packed design, you might be wondering - why didn’t we rank the 2018 Rogue first place? Yes, all these features are impressive, but unless you’re a dedicated golf enthusiast, you might find that a price tag of nearly $300 USD might be slightly impractical for a single fairway wood.
If you’re looking for a technology packed club that doesn’t cost a fortune, the Cobra King F8 Fairway Woods might be a good choice. These clubs feature advanced features just like the Callaway Golf’s, but they come at a much lighter cost so they make a practical choice for bargain hunters.
Some of these intuitive features include a progressive Baffler Dual Rail System that adjusts to your loft and angle to fine-tune forgiveness no matter where your ball might lie. It also boasts an Ultralight Carbon Fiber Crown that with a low center of gravity, producing higher trajectories and widening the sweet spot to give you a more forgiving wood.
Lastly, the F8 features a forged E9 475 Stainless Steel Face Insert. Sleek and efficient, this flexible face imparts significant power for increased height and reduced spin, casting your ball out further to get you closer to the green in fewer shots.
Obviously, the trend with contemporary fairway woods is to incorporate a design that widens the sweet spot because the clubs can be fairly hard to hit. With the TaylorMade 2017 M2, that remains to be true. Optimized for mid to high handicappers, this fairway wood uses a unique inverted cone technology which essentially opens up the club face from a variety of stances, allowing users to strike a ball with superb power no matter the lie.
The lightweight carbon crown is easy to wield and comfortable to use, so you can feel more confident on the fairway to produce more accurate distance shots. Now the question is - is the M2 right on the money? At just slightly under $200 USD, this premium fairway wood might just be the most reasonably priced pick on the list, given its impressive and intuitive design.
If you’re really out here looking for a bargain, we’ve got something that can give that budget some justice. The Pinemeadow PGX Offset Golf Fairway Woods is one of the most affordable yet high quality fairway woods we’ve found. This lightweight wood uses a graphite shaft that’s easy to swing and flexible upon impact for maximum energy transfer.
While it’s significantly more affordable than other clubs on the list, it’s worth mentioning that the PGX does have a few special tricks up its sleeve as well. For instance, the face features an offset leading edge which buys you more time to square off your shot just before impact so you can fine tune your swing to get the results you want. See more great clone golf clubs here.
The fairway woods are a family of clubs that can make or break your game. With the right ones, you can prevent ever being in the rough at all, and bring yourself closer to the green without having to navigate bunkers and tall grass.
In our opinion, the best fairway woods would have to be the Founders Club Fresh Metal Golf Clubs Fairway Woods. Intuitive, forgiving, and offering superior control for a fairway wood, this club is definitely one you’d want to have in your bag to skip through the rough and make your way straight to the green from the fairway.
