Fairway Woods · 75 minutes
Fitted Off the Deck First.
The Tee Comes Second.
Almost every fairway wood fitting anywhere starts on a tee peg, because that is where the club is easiest to hit and the numbers look best. It is also the shot you play least. We do it the other way round.
Two Different Clubs Wearing the Same Badge
A three wood struck off a tee and a three wood struck off tight fairway grass are, functionally, two different tests. Off a tee you can catch the ball on a slightly ascending blow, the sole never touches anything, and head design barely matters. Off the deck the sole has to interact with the ground, the strike sits lower on the face, and the centre of gravity location becomes decisive.
Golfers routinely buy a head that produces beautiful numbers on a tee and then discover over the following season that they cannot get it airborne from a fairway. By then the receipt is old and the club lives in the garage.
So the first forty minutes of a woods session here happen off a mat set to fairway firmness. Only once we know what works from the ground do we tee anything up, and the tee test is mostly a check rather than a decision point.
How we structure a sessionWhat Changes Off the Deck
- Strike moves lower on the face, which lowers launch and raises spin
- Sole camber and leading edge decide whether the club digs or glides
- A low, deep centre of gravity helps enormously; a low, forward one does not
- Shaft tip stiffness matters more because delivery is more variable
- Head size preference frequently reverses compared to the tee test
What Job Is This Club Doing?
Before we choose a head we settle what the club is for, because three plausible answers lead to three different builds.
Reaching Par Fives
Distance dominates and the lie is usually decent. A stronger loft with a lower-spinning profile makes sense, and a slightly longer build is defensible because you are rarely under pressure to find a narrow fairway.
Tee Club on Tight Holes
Then it is a control club and should be fitted like a long driver: shorter, heavier, tighter dispersion, launch tuned for a tee peg. Distance is secondary and we will happily give up ten yards to halve the spread.
Long Approach From Anywhere
The hardest brief. This club has to work from fairway, light rough and hanging lies. More loft, more sole relief, more forgiveness, and honestly often better served by a five wood than a three.
Three Wood or Five Wood
An unfashionable answer that we give often: many golfers should not carry a three wood at all. If the carry gap between your driver and your best-hit hybrid is under thirty yards, a five wood serves better because it launches higher off the deck and lands softer. The only thing you lose is the number on the sole.
The Dials in a Woods Session
Head and Sole
Head size, face depth, sole width and camber, and where the centre of gravity sits front to back. We test at least four head shapes off the deck before narrowing, because this is where the largest differences live.
Loft
Fairway wood lofts have crept stronger the same way iron lofts have. We fit to delivered launch, which frequently means a golfer ends up in more loft than the number they thought they wanted.
Shaft Weight and Tip
Fairway shafts sit between driver and hybrid in weight. A slightly heavier, tip-stiffer profile than the driver shaft usually improves strike consistency from the ground without costing carry.
Length
Stock three woods are long. Half an inch shorter is one of the most reliable improvements available in this part of the bag, and it costs almost nothing in measured carry.
Seventy-Five Minutes, $115
This session is usually booked together with hybrids, because the top of the bag is one problem rather than several. If you are considering both, ask for the combined block and we will run them together in one sitting.
- Deck and tee carry medians, recorded separately
- Launch and spin from both lies
- Strike map showing face-height distribution
- Recommended loft, shaft, length and hosel setting
- Where the club sits in your ladder relative to driver and hybrids