The perfect high flying and soft landing fairway wood shot may be in the bag for you.
This week, Golfweek’s fitness guru and long driver Averee Dovsek explains a few simple tips to execute the perfect fairway wood shot that will help hold up on a green.
Many golfers fail to take into account the angle of attack when using their woods. It is next to impossible to hold a green from a fairway with a wood if the angle of attack is too low.
Check out these simple tips to eagle your next par 5.
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If you’re looking for more instruction, click here.
The Titleist GT2 fairway woods are for golfers who want more distance and a high level of stability and forgiveness. The GT3 fairway woods are for players who want left-right adjustability, lower spin rates and a lower ball flight.
Fairway woods are among the most challenging clubs to make because they need to be versatile, easy to hit and send the ball the same distance whether a player is hitting off a tee or from the turf. For that reason, when players find a fairway wood they like, they tend to stick with it.
However, by applying the critical new feature it developed for the new GT drivers to the GT fairway woods, Titleist feels it has unlocked new levels of overall performance, blending more distance with an improved ball flight and more consistency.
Who are the Titleist GT fairway woods for?
The Titleist GT2 fairway woods are for golfers who want more distance and a high level of stability and forgiveness. The GT3 fairway woods are for players who want left-right adjustability, lower spin rates and a lower ball flight.
What should you know about the Titleist GT fairway woods?
While several other manufacturers have released fairway woods that have carbon fiber crowns, Titleist has struck with stainless steel and worked to make it thinner and stronger. Now, however, with the GT fairway woods, Titleist is adding a seamless thermoform crown piece to both the GT2 and the GT3, made using the company’s proprietary matrix polymer.
The top of the GT2 is designed with a seamless thermoform matric polymer crown piece to reduce weight. (David Dusek/Golfweek)
The polymer weighs significantly less than the stainless steel it replaces on the top of both clubs, lowering the center of gravity (CG) location and creating discretionary weight that designers could reposition to other areas.
There is no visible seam, and in the address position, the GT2 and GT3 feature a glossy black top that looks like many previously released Titleist fairway woods.
To improve performance on low-struck shots, both Titleist GT fairway woods have a forged 465 stainless steel face in an L shape, which wraps under the leading edge and into the sole. On thin shots, this allows the hitting area to flex more efficiently.
Both the GT2 and the GT3 come with Titleist’s 16-position SureFit hosel mechanism. The two cogs in the system move independently, so players and fitters can adjust the lie angle, the loft or both to ensure a good fit and distance gapping.
The lower portion of the hitting area in the GT3 has been a redesigned to create a deeper, squared-off look. (David Dusek/Golfweek)
Titleist has also redesigned the lower portion of the hitting area, flattening it to create a more confidence-inspiring look. At the same time, the GT2 has a lower profile than the GT3, which has a taller, deeper face that lower-handicap players often prefer.
Titleist designers aspired to make the GT2 launch higher but spin less than the TSR2 fairway woods because that should equate to more carry distance. So, using some of the weight saved by going with the polymer crown, designers repositioned more weight forward in the head, which shifted the CG more forward, resulting in higher ball speeds and lower spin rates. The sole weight behind the leading edge comes standard at 9 grams, but other weights are available to custom fitters so they can fine-tune the spin rate and launch angle for players.
The GT3 has a five-position moveable weight in the front of the sole. (David Dusek/Golfweek)
While the GT2 is the larger of the two fairway woods and matches the GT2 driver in being a high-stability, high-forgiveness offering, the GT has a five-position adjustable weight track in the sole that allows players and fitters to give the club a draw or fade bias. The GT3 comes standard with a 12-gram weight in the track, but other weights are available to fitters.
What lofts are available in the Titleist GT fairway woods?
The Titlist GT2 fairway woods are available in 13.5, 15, 16.5, 18 and 21-degree versions, and the GT3 fairway woods are available in 15, 16.5 and 18-degree versions.
How much do the Titleist GT fairway woods cost?
The Titleist GT2 and GT3 fairway woods are $399 each with Project X Denali Red, Project X HZRDUS Black 5th Gen or Mitsubishi Tensei 1K Blue graphite shaft and Titleist Universal 360 grip.
When will the Titleist GT fairway woods be in stores?
Titleist GT2 and GT3 fairway woods are available for fitting and pre-sale now and will be in stores starting August 23.
Here are several close-up images of the new Titleist GT fairway woods:
Gear: Cobra Darkspeed LS, Darkspeed X, Darkspeed Max fairway woods Price:$429 with UST Mamiya LIN-Q M40X White shaft and Lamkin Crossline grip. $329 (Darkspeed LS), with UST Mamiya LIN-Q M40X Blue or UST Mamiya LIN-Q M40X Red shaft (Darkspeed Max, X) Specs: Titanium face and body with carbon fiber crown and adjustable weights and adjustable hosel (Darkspeed LS); Stainless steel body and face with carbon fiber crown and moveable weights and adjustable hosel (Darkspeed Max, X). Available: January 11 (pre-sale), January 19 (in-stores)
Who It’s For: Golfers who want more ball speed and distance with some adjustability (Darkspeed LS). Golfers who want more distance and forgiveness (Darkspeed Max, X).
The Skinny:The Darkspeed LS has a titanium face and body with a carbon fiber crown for players who want a low-spin option off the tee that does not sacrifice distance. In contrast, the Max and the X versions have extra stability and forgiveness.
The Deep Dive: Finding just the suitable fairway wood can be challenging because you want a club that fills a distance gap and can hit a specific yardage both off the tee and from the fairway. With the release of the three Darkspeed fairway woods — the LS, the Max and the X — Cobra is giving players and fitters a wide variety of clubs and several different ball flights to choose from.
The most interesting is the Darkspeed LS, a club made for fast-swinging players who generate excessive spin and need a club that produces a lower ball flight.
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The Darkspeed LS, with its titanium face, titanium body and carbon fiber crown, is built like a driver. (David Dusek/Golfweek)
The Darkspeed LS was designed like a small driver, with a titanium body, titanium face and carbon fiber crown. The titanium faces in the Darkspeed LS fairway woods can be made thinner than their stainless steel counterparts, which saves weight while still allowing them to flex more at impact for increased ball speed.
Inside the Darkspeed LS, Cobra has added a 19-gram tungsten weight pad in the heel and two areas. The internal weights boost the moment of inertia (MOI) and, combined with the internal PWR Bridge bar that extends from the heel to the toe area, lowers the center of gravity (CG) location.
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The Darkspeed LS has three moveable weights in the sole. (David Dusek/Golfweek)
Opting for a titanium body and a carbon fiber crown saved even more weight, which allowed designers to add three moveable weights to the sole, two in the forward area and one in the back. The Darkspeed LS comes standard with two 15-gram weights and one 3-gram weight, and when the heavier weights are in the front, the club produces more ball speed, less spin and the lowest launch angle. However, players and fitters can move the weights to simultaneously boost stability and create either a draw or fade bias.
The Darkspeed LS comes in 13, 14.5 and 17.5-degree versions, but using the MyFly adjustable hosel, players and fitters can increase or decrease the loft by up to 1.5 degrees to help them find the ideal ball flight and distance.
The Darkspeed X and Max fairway woods are constructed similarly, but instead of using titanium, they each feature a 475 stainless steel PWRShell face and 17-4 stainless steel chassis.
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The Darkspeed X has a single weight in the back of the sole. (David Dusek/Golfweek)
The PWRShell face extends the hitting area below the leading edge and into the sole, which helps to broaden the sweet spot and enhance performance on low-struck shots. And, like the Darkspeed LS, the Darkspeed X and Max fairway woods have the MyFly adjustable hosel system, and an internal PWRBridge weight helps to lower the CG location to encourage higher-flying shots.
The Darkspeed X (15, 16.5, 18 and 21 degrees) has a 3-gram weight in the back of the sole that increases stability and gives the head a neutral shot-shape bias.
The MyFly adjustable hosel allows players and fitters to increase or decrease the loft by up to 1.5 degrees. (David Dusek/Golfweek)
The Darkspeed Max (15.5, 18.5 and 21.5 degrees) has two weight ports and comes standard with a 15-gram and a 3-gram weight, along with ports in the heel and back of the sole. When the heavier weight is in the heel, the Max has a draw bias, but when it is in the back, the MOI, forgiveness, spin rate and launch angle all go up.
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Who They’re For: Golfers looking for more distance and forgiveness along with shot-shaping ability off the tee and from the turf.
The Skinny: PXG uses multiple materials, including new stainless steel alloys and moveable weights, to boost forgiveness and let players tweak the launch angle and spin rate of its latest fairway woods.
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The Deep Dive: Golf equipment companies such as PXG don’t control how fast you swing a club or how well you strike the ball, but through research and clever engineering, they can make clubs that will optimize your good shots and reduce the severity of your mis-hits. It’s a tough job, and when it comes to fairway woods, it is even harder because fairway woods need to hit the ball to the same distance and on the same trajectory when you hit shots off the tee or from the turf.
PXG’s latest fairway wood, the Black Ops, uses exotic materials, moveable weights and an adjustable hosel to help golfers hit their fairway wood shots farther and more consistently.
A key to the Black Ops fairway woods is a new high-strength stainless steel alloy used in the face. PXG said it is stronger than other steels commonly used in fairway woods, so the hitting area can be made thinner and lighter. In fact, the face is now just 0.07 inches thick. That allows it to be more flexible at impact, which results in more ball speed, a higher launch angle and less spin.
The Black Ops fairway woods have also been made with a compression-molded carbon fiber crown that reduces weight on the top of the head and lowers the center of gravity. The chassis is made from a light but strong material, AM355 stainless steel, that allowed designers to save even more weight.
That saved mass has been repurposed in the form of three adjustable screws in the sole of the Black Ops, with the three ports located in the heel, toe and the back-middle areas. The club comes standard with a 12-gram weight in the back and 2.5-gram weights in the heel and toe to maximize forgiveness and help create a higher launch angle, but putting the heavier weight in the heel will encourage a draw and adding it to the toe port will create a fade bias.
To help golfers find a club that hits shots to the ideal distance, PXG has made the Black Ops with an adjustable hosel that can increase or decrease the loft by as many as 1.5 degrees and raise or lower the lie angle.
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Below are several images of the Black Ops fairway woods:
TaylorMade’s Qi10 fairway woods offer a blend of distance, forgiveness and spin.
Gear: TaylorMade Qi10, Qi10 Max, Qi10 Tour fairway woods Price:$349 each for the Qi10 or Qi10 Max with Fujikura Speeder NX TCS shaft, Fujikura Ventus Blue TR shaft or Mitsubishi Tensei AV Limited Blue shaft and Golf Pride Z-Grip grip. $449 for the Qi10 Tour. Specs: Carbon fiber crown with V-shaped sole plate, Speed Pocket and stainless steel face (Qi10, Qi10 Max); carbon fiber crown, titanium face, moveable weight and adjustable hosel (Qi10 Tour). Available: Feb. 2 for the Qi10, Qi10 Max; Feb. 16 for the Qi10 Tour, but available for pre-order NOW
Who They’re For: Golfers who want to maximize forgiveness and distance off the tee and from the fairway (Qi10, Qi10 Max), or low-handicap golfers who want adjustability, more distance off the tee and a more-compact shape (Qi10 Tour).
The Skinny: The standard Qi10 has been made to blend forgiveness and distance in an all-around fairway wood, while the Max version has a higher moment of inertia to make it extremely forgiving and easy to launch high into the air. The Qi10 Tour blends a titanium face with a sliding weight and adjustable hosel, making it the club low-handicap players can fine-tune easily.
The Deep Dive: TaylorMade has been a significant force in the fairway wood category since 2012, when the release of RocketBallz ushered in the era of nuclear-powered fairway woods that deliver driver-like distance. Since that time, the Carlsbad, California-based company has continued to refine shapes, work with new materials and design clubs that are as capable of splitting tight fairways off the tee as they are attacking long par 5s from the turf.
Golfers tend to be finicky when it comes to fairway woods, so one club can’t be perfect for every player. With the Qi10 fairway wood family, TaylorMade offers three very different clubs that share some key technologies.
The Qi10 fairway woods have massive carbon fiber crowns to remove weight from the top of the head and lower the center of gravity. (David Dusek/Golfweek)
Since 2015, TaylorMade fairway woods have had a distinctive look, combining a carbon fiber crown with a stainless steel piece that joins the crown and face. In some clubs, such as the M4, M6 and SIM fairway woods, that area was even white to create a contrast and help golfers improve their alignment. But in the Qi 10 fairway woods, that ledge area is gone. Now the carbon fiber crown, which is larger, extends to the seam where it meets the hitting area. TaylorMade refers to it as an Infinity Crown, and it not only creates a more-premium look in the address position, it also reduces weight in the top of the club.
To help golfers align shots more easily, TaylorMade added a subtle white line on the top portion of the hitting area, as it did in company’s previous Stealth 2 fairway woods.
All the Qi10 fairway woods, including the Max, have Twist Face to help golfers hit straighter shots. (David Dusek/Golfweek)
All the Qi10 fairway woods also feature Twist Face, the company’s design feature that peels back the high-toe area and low-heel areas of the face to help golfers hit straighter shots. There is also a Speed Pocket slot designed in the sole, directly behind the leading edge, that helps improve performance on thin shots and allows the lower portion of the hitting area to flex more efficiently. The Qi10 and Qi10 Max also feature a V-Steel sole design that lifts the heel and toe areas on the bottom of the club to reduce turf interaction and help golfers maintain speed through the hitting zone.
Inside the Qi10, TaylorMade added an internal 15-gram weight in the back and a 42-gram weight behind the face to improve stability while significantly increasing ball speed. The Qi10 Max has a 42-gram internal weight in the back and a 15-gram weight in the front, so it is more stable on mis-hits, generates more spin and should produce a higher launch for most golfers. In fact, the Qi10 Max has the highest moment of inertia of any fairway wood TaylorMade has made.
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The TaylorMade Qi10 Tour fairway wood (David Dusek/Golfweek)
For more-accomplished golfers and players who want to maximize adjustability, TaylorMade is offering the Qi10 Tour. The head is smaller (170 cubic centimeters) than the Qi10 (190 cubic centimeters) and the Qi10 Max (200 cubic centimeters), but it does have an Infinity carbon fiber crown like those clubs, plus Twist Face and a Speed Pocket in the sole. However, the Qi10 Tour has three significant features the other clubs lack.
The titanium face and carbon fiber crown combination allowed engineers to give the Qi10 Tour a 50-gram sliding weight, enabling players and fitters to shift the center of gravity forward to reduce spin, increase ball speed and produce a lower launch angle. Moving the weight back increases spin and should produce a higher ball flight with more forgiveness.
Finally, the Qi10 Tour also has an adjustable hosel that allows the stated loft to be increased or decreased by as many as 2 degrees.
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
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.
