The Mizuno ST-Max fairways are made to be stable and easy to hit.
Gear: Mizuno ST-Max 230 fairway woods Price: $300 with Aldila Ascent UL, Mitsubishi Lai’ Li Blue or UST Mamiya Helium NanoCore 4F1 shaft and Lamkin ST Hybrid grip Specs: MAS1C maraging stainless steel with stainless steel chassis, carbon fiber crown and adjustable hosel. 15, 18 and 21-degree head options.
Who It’s For: Golfers who prioritize forgiveness and who want to hit straighter shots off the tee and from the fairway.
The Skinny: The new ST-Max 230 is designed to be the most forgiving, most stable and easiest fairway wood to hit in the Mizuno lineup.
The Deep Dive: Mizuno’s ST-G fairway wood is an attention-getter because with its titanium construction, massive stainless steel sole plate and weight-forward design, accomplished golfers can use it as an alternative to a driver for increased accuracy without losing much distance. It’s macho, but it’s not for everyone. The ST-Z, with its carbon fiber crown, is bigger and more forgiving, but now, with the release of the ST-Max, the Japanese brand is offering its most stable fairway wood yet for golfers who want a point-and-shoot club that is even easier to hit.
From front to back and from heel to toe, the ST-Max is the biggest fairway wood in the Mizuno stable, and when it comes to helping a club resist twisting on off-center hits, bigger is better. But what really makes a club more stable on shots hit outside of the sweet spot is a high moment of inertia (MOI), and to get that, Mizuno designers needed to reposition more weight to the back of the head.
So, instead of using stainless steel on the crown, the ST-Max 230 has a carbon fiber crown. That not only creates discretionary weight but also removes weight from the top of the club and lowers the center of gravity (CG) location, which encourages a higher launch angle.
The CorTech Chamber allows the lower portion of the face to flex more efficiently. (David Dusek/Golfweek)
Mizuno also gave the ST-Max 230 a larger CorTech Chamber behind the leading edge. The CorTech chamber is a slot that allows the lower portion of the hitting area to flex more efficiently and pull the sweet spot down. The slot is covered by a blue thermoplastic polyurethane (TPU) to keep water and debris out of the head, but a small stainless-steel bar has been added instead of the TPU. At impact, the TPU soaks up some of the vibrations that are created to make shots feel better, but the bar’s momentum keeps it moving forward, so the club transfers more energy into the shot.
The TPU used in the CorTech Chamber weighs less than the steel that would be there, and along with the weight saved by using a carbon fiber crown, it allowed Mizuno to add a weight in the back of the sole that pulls the center of gravity back and elevates the MOI.
Compared to the ST-G and the ST-Z, the new ST-Max produces a higher ball flight and more spin, which for many golfers should translate into more carry distance and a steep angle of descent, so shots stop faster for more control and consistency.
Below are several looks at the Mizuno ST-Max 230 fairway woods.
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.
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.
Rails on the sole of the Halo XL fairways help them glide through and over the turf more easily. (David Dusek/Golfweek)
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.
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.
Callaway’s updated Apex UW is a miniature high-lofted fairway wood.
Gear: Callaway Apex UW (2023) Price: $299.99 each with Mitsubishi MMT graphite shaft and Golf Pride Z Grip Specs: Stainless steel face and hosel. 17-, 19- and 21-degree options Available: August 18 (pre-sale), Sept. 8 (in-stores)
Who It’s For: Accomplished golfers who want the launch and distance of a high-lofted fairway wood in a club that is the size of a compact hybrid.
The Skinny: The Apex UT combines fairway wood technologies for extra distance in a compact shape that is pleasing to the eyes of low-handicap players. With a neutral weight bias, better players should be able to shape shots and gain versatility from it.
The Deep Dive: Over the last three years, there has been a surge in the popularity of high-lofted fairway woods on the PGA Tour and among accomplished golfers. Their low-and-back center of gravity, along with their wide sole and loft, can make them an interesting option for golfers who would rather not carry a hybrid.
Callaway, however, has a unique alternative for players who want fairway wood levels of distance combined with hybrid-style versatility: the Apex UW (utility wood).
Hybrids were designed as long-iron replacements; consider the Apex UW a hybrid replacement. Available in lofts of 17, 19 and 21 degrees, this is the second generation of the UW, and they have the same loft as most 2-irons and 3-irons or their corresponding hybrids. However, the Apex UWs come standard with shafts that are longer than a hybrid’s, for more speed, but shorter than a fairway wood shaft to help players make solid contact more easily.
The Apex UW looks like a scaled-down fairway wood in the address position. It has a high-strength C300 maraging steel face cup designed to flex more efficiently at impact than a flat face, which helps broaden the sweet spot and generate more ball speed. Inside the head, Callaway added its Batwing structure to the heel and toe areas. They connect the sole to the crown and help to stiffen the chassis when the club hits the ball, so more energy is transferred into the shot instead of being lost in the deformation of the head.
The Apex UW will be used by many players off the tee on long par 3s, but most of its shots for better players will be off the ground into long par 4s and par 5s, so turf interaction was a significant concern for Callaway. To help the Apex UW slide through grass and sand more easily, designers gave it a sole with a seam running from the leading edge to the back of the club and a pair of scalloped areas. Callaway calls it a Cutwave Pro Sole, and it should improve turf interaction.
Finally, Callaway designed the Apex UW with a center of gravity that produces a neutral weight bias, so the club is not pre-set to create either a draw or a fade. While many hybrids for mid- and higher-handicap golfers are designed to help reduce the effects of a slice, good players often want to work the ball in different directions and have the skills required to do so. The Apex UW’s weighting lets that happen more easily while allowing good players to hit high-flying approach shots that land softly and stop fast on the green.
There is a screw in the sole that is not adjustable by players, but custom fitters can change it to adjust the club’s swing weight based on its length or a player’s preferences.
Gear: Ping G430 LST 3-wood Price: $600 with PING Alta CB Black, Mitsubishi Kai’Li White or Project X HZRDUS Smoke Red RDX shaft and Golf Pride 360 Tour Velvet grips Specs: 169-cc volume with adjustable hosel, titanium face and chassis, carbon fiber crown and tungsten sole plate. 15-degrees only.
Who It’s For: Golfers who want a low-spin, distance-oriented 3-wood that is loaded with the latest technology.
The Skinny: Ping has taken the technologies used in the G430 LST driver and added extra weight to the bottom of its new low-spin 3-wood to create a club that fast-swinging golfers can use as a driver alternative off the tee and a powerful club to attack long par 5s from the fairway.
The Deep Dive: While the Ping G430 family was released in North America back in January, the G430 LST 3-wood was quietly made available to PGA Tour pros separately this spring, and it is the most technologically advanced fairway wood the Phoenix, Arizona-based company has ever created.
Most fairway woods are designed with stainless steel, because it is strong, but over the last few seasons, some brands have tinkered with multilateral designs that are typically associated with drivers. The G430 LST 3-wood fits into that category.
Using titanium in the face and carbon fiber in the crown allowed Ping to add a massive tungsten sole weight to lower the center of gravity. (Ping)
Like Ping’s G430 LST driver, the G430 LST 3-wood, which is only available in a 15-degree version, has a carbon fiber crown that wraps into the sides of the club to reduce weight on the top of the head. It saves about 5.5 grams of weight compared to a stainless steel crown of the same size.
The G430 LST 3-wood also features a 2041 Beta Titanium face and a Ti 8-1-1 body. Titanium, which is usually reserved for drivers, is significantly lighter than stainless steel, which is often used in fairway woods, and it can flex more efficiently at the moment of impact, to help golfers generate more ball speed and distance.
That saved weight has been concentrated in the bottom of the club in the form of an 80-gram tungsten sole weight. It pulls the center of gravity location down and back to encourage higher-flying shots with less spin.
An adjustable hosel allows players and fitters to increase or decrease the loft by up to 1.5 degrees, so this 3-wood can have as little as 13.5 degrees of loft or as much as 16.5 degrees.
As they prepare for the 2023 PGA Championship, several players are testing hybrids and fairway woods to handle the rough.
ROCHESTER, N.Y. — The consensus among players and caddies at the 2023 PGA Championship is that it’s really a U.S. Open. Oak Hill Country Club has undergone significant changes since Jason Dufner won the 2013 PGA Championship here, with scores of trees having been removed, but with firm fairways, thick rough and fast greens, it has the classic, old-school feel of a U.S. Open
“I look at a golf course like this and I think it’s quite similar to what we faced at Winged Foot in 2020 in terms of a long golf course, long rough and pretty narrow fairways,” said Rory McIlroy on Monday.
A 500-yard par 4 doesn’t quicken the pulse of professional golfers anymore, but a 500-yard par 4 that is surrounded by 4 to 5 inches of snarly grass gets their attention fast.
“You get rewarded for hitting good shots, and if I miss the fairway on one of those holes that’s 500 yards, I’m going to be hacking something out of the rough and probably not going to be able to get to the green in two,” said Scottie Scheffler.
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Conditions for growing grass in Rochester this spring have been ideal, with cool days and plenty of rain. When golfers arrived at Oak Hill and started playing practice rounds, several immediately realized that handling the rough could require tweaking their equipment setup.
Several notable players now use a 7-wood regularly, including Max Homa, Dustin Johnson and Joaquín Niemann, but many players spoke with PGA Tour reps and requested them to make hybrids and high-lofted fairway woods, like 7-woods and even 9-woods, that could be used this week.
Ping’s Spencer Rothluebber worked with Callum Tarren on Monday after building the 32-year-old a G430 9-wood. “I had him hit the 9-wood and his 4-iron out of here,” Rothluebber said, pointing to a patch of rough behind the manicured turf of the driving range. “The 9-wood flew about 45 yards more and his 4-iron looked like it was really struggling.”
Tarren’s 9-wood has a 24-degree head, but using its adjustable hosel, the playing loft is closer to 22 degrees. Ping also builds its 9-woods for tour players an inch shorter than standard, typically at 40 inches in length, to make it even easier to control shots from rough and awkward lies.
Rothluebber said that 2022 U.S. Open winner Matt Fitzpatrick has also been testing a G430 9-wood in preparation for this week’s PGA Championship.
Hybrid clubs and high-lofted fairway woods have wider soles and a lower profile than long irons, which helps them work through thick grass more easily. They also have a center of gravity location that is lower and farther back, away from the face, which encourages a higher launch angle.
JJ Van Wezenbeeck, the director of player promotions for Titleist, said his brand saw an increase in hybrids from players looking to battle the rough.
“There are some demanding shots from the fairways, and long par 3s, and earlier this week the wind was up a little bit, so the hybrid seems to be a really good choice for some of the players,” Van Wezenbeeck said. “A few players have been trying 7-woods and 9-woods, but the hybrid for many players seems to be the sweetspot for moving the ball out of the rough and still giving them some of the other shots that they are going to have this week.”
Van Wezenbeeck said that Jordan Spieth is among the players who have been testing hybrids this week at Oak Hill. In Spieth’s case, a TSR1 hybrid.
If you routinely play courses that have thick rough or struggle to hit high, soft-landing shots on long par 3s, work with a custom fitter who can watch you hit shots using a launch monitor to see if hybrids or a high-lofted fairway wood could be a good option for you. Below are several notable options worth trying.
Adams Golf is back with new woods, irons, wedges and putters that golfers can buy online and that come with a 60-day guarantee.
Fifteen years before the current golf boom started, Adams Golf was on a roll. The Plano, Texas-based company made highly regarded hybrids played by numerous PGA Tour stars off contract, disguising them by covering the clubs with headcovers from brands they were paid to use. Adams also made innovative woods, irons, wedges and putters before it was purchased by TaylorMade-Adidas Golf in 2012 for $70 million.
In the following years, some Adams Golf technologies and ideas made their way into TaylorMade clubs, but the brand faded with time. Until now.
Adams Golf – which is still owned by TaylorMade – has announced a rebranding of the company, including a new logo, a new line of clubs and a new direct-to-consumer sales approach. Adams’ target market is the large number of new players who have taken up the game over the last three years, younger golfers (27 percent of new golfers are aged 18-34 in 2020) and golfers who have rediscovered the sport. Adams is not making boxed sets for these players or focusing on max-game-improvement clubs. Instead, the goal is to offer well-made equipment that has technologies, features and benefits found in higher-priced clubs but sell those clubs at a lower cost.
People’s buying habits have changed since Adams was a prominent brand in the ’90s and 2000s, so the company is trying to make itself available to younger players and other golfers who are used to buying things online. You won’t find Adams’ new drivers, fairway woods, hybrids, irons, wedges or putters in golf shops. Instead, individual clubs and full sets can be purchased at adamsgolf.com, which all come with a 60-day, money-back guarantee.
Here’s the new Adams Idea lineup for 2023, all of which will be available for right- or left-handed golfers:
