2024 best fairway woods – Syndication Server

Cleveland Launcher Halo XL fairway woods

These are built for consistency and distance.

Gear: Cleveland Launcher Halo XL fairway woods
Price: $249.99 each with Mitsubishi Tensei AV Blue shaft and Lamkin Crossline 360 grip
Spec: Stainless steel head and face. Available as 3- (15 degrees), 5- (18 degrees), 7- (21 degrees) and 9-wood (24 degrees)

Who It’s For: Mid- and high-handicap golfers who want a forgiving fairway wood that also helps to provide more distance.

The Skinny: The Launcher Halo XL fairway woods are bigger than most fairway woods and have a lower profile to make them easy to hit, while the railed sole helps golfers increase consistency and avoid digging.

The Deep Dive: The Cleveland Launcher XL2 drivers are designed to be forgiving and help golfers generate more ball speed and distance off the tee, and the players who like that type of club are precisely who Cleveland is targeting with the Launcher Halo XL fairway woods.

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Cleveland Halo XL fairway woods — The Halo XL fairways have a large, reassuring look. (David Dusek/Golfweek)

Golfers who routinely shoot in the high 80s, 90s or low 100s tend to lack consistency with their long clubs, which is a problem because they often need fairway woods on long par 4s and nearly all par 5s. So, Cleveland made the Launcher Halo XL fairway woods bigger, with larger hitting areas from heel to toe while maintaining a lower profile. Standing over the ball, it’s a confidence-inspiring look.

Like the Launcher XL2 drivers, the Launcher Halo XL fairway woods have been designed with Rebound Frame, which adds a flexible region behind the rigid topline and seam where the face meets the chassis. The result is the whole hitting area flexes back at the moment of impact, broadening the sweet spot on the variable-thickness face and helping to protect ball speed on off-center hits.

Cleveland designers added a pair of rails on the bottom of each Launcher Halo XL fairway wood. They help the club slide through the turf more efficiently and maintain speed through the hitting zone, reducing the effects of ground-first contact and helping players get more distance.

The Launcher Halo XL fairway woods do not have an adjustable hosel system, but they are offered in four lofts ranging from a 15-degree 3-wood up to a 24-degree 9-wood, so players and fitters should be able to find the combination of clubs that logically fills distance gaps.

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XXio releases 13 family of woods and irons

Xxio 13 drivers, fairway woods, hybrids and irons are designed to maximize carry distance and forgiveness.

Being a part of Dunlop Sports gives the design team that works on Xxio woods and irons a major advantage, because it can cherry-pick technologies and ideas that prove to be successful at Srixon and Cleveland, Xxio’s sister brands.

And Xxio has that advantage while maintaining a focus on a particular segment of the golf market. Instead of making clubs for the masses or major-winners such as Brooks Koepka, Shane Lowry and Hideki Matsuyama, Xxio concentrates on lightweight gear that can help moderate-speed players gain distance and hit shots higher.

So you will not see the new Xxio 13 driver, fairway woods, hybrids or irons at PGA Tour events in 2024, because they were made specifically for recreational golfers who struggle to generate speed and fail to make center-face contact consistently.

Here’s what you need to know about the new Xxio 13 woods and irons, which should be in stores starting Jan. 26.

Callaway Paradym Ai Smoke fairway woods

Callaway Paradym Ai Smoke fairway woods are for people who want more distance off the tee and from the fairway with ball-speed protection on mis-hits.

Gear: Callaway Paradym Ai Smoke fairway woods
Price: $349.99 with Project X Cypher 2.0 shaft, Project X Denali Black shaft or Mitsubishi Tensei AV Blue shaft and Golf Pride Tour Velvet 360 grip
Specs: Forged stainless steel face and body with carbon fiber crown and adjustable hosel
Available: Feb. 2, but available via pre-order NOW

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Who They’re For: Golfers who want more distance off the tee and from the fairway, plus ball-speed protection on mis-hits.

The Skinny: Using artificial intelligence, Callaway created different faces for each of the four Paradym Ai Smoke fairway woods so they are optimized to enhance distance and protect ball speed for specific types of players.

The Deep Dive: Fairway woods can be the most challenging clubs to design because engineers need to deliver the ideal flight and desired distance both off the tee and on shots hit off the turf. It’s not easy.

In the four Paradym Ai Smoke fairway woods, Callaway studied thousands of swings made by a wide variety of golfers and developed unique “Swing Codes,” mapping where players of different abilities make contact on the face.

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As you would suspect, accomplished golfers found the center of the hitting area often and delivered the club to the ball on a neutral path, while mid- and higher-handicap players made contact all over the face and tended to swing from out to in. Callaway also observed that many players who struggle to make solid, consistent contact tend to have a steep angle of attack into the ball. At the same time, accomplished golfers only swing down slightly as they hit fairway woods.

So Callaway utilized artificial intelligence to optimize performance for different players. Engineers instructed supercomputers to virtually design and test thousands of faces to reveal which could deliver a blend of distance and ball-speed protection on mis-hits for different types of players. The result is four faces, each with unique thick and thin areas, that are now in the four Paradym Ai Smoke fairway woods.

The standard Paradym Ai Smoke Max fairway wood will be available as a 3-wood, 3HL, 5-wood, Heavenwood, 7-wood, 9-wood and 11-wood. It has a carbon fiber crown to reduce weight on the club’s top and help lower the center of gravity. Removing a pair of stainless steel reinforcing beams from the sole that were present in the original Paradym Max fairway woods saved another 24 grams of weight.

For fast-swinging players and golfers who generate excessive spin, Callaway designed the Paradym Ai Smoke Triple Diamond – available as a 3-, 5- and 7-wood – with a forward center of gravity that increases ball speed, reduces spin and helps produce a more piercing ball flight. The Triple Diamond is smaller than the other Paradym Ai Smoke fairway woods. Callaway designed it with a stainless steel sole instead of a carbon fiber sole because the weight saved by going with carbon fiber would be minimal.

For golfers who tend to slice the ball, Callaway offers the Paradym Ai Smoke Max D, a draw-biased fairway wood that comes as a 3-, 3HL, 5- and 7-wood.

Callaway also offers the Paradym Ai Smoke Max Fast, which comes standard with a lighter shaft and grip and is available as a 3-, 5-, 7- and 9-wood for players who struggle to generate speed and distance.

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Check out several images of the Paradym Ai Smoke fairway woods below.