Fairway Wood Fitting

Works Off a Tee, Fails Off the Deck

That sentence describes the complaint in most fairway wood sessions, and it is almost never a swing fault. A three wood teed up is being asked to do a driver's job with a smaller head. The same club off the turf has to interact with the ground, and that is a completely different set of requirements.

Sole width, sole camber, leading edge shape and centre of gravity height determine whether a wood glides through Bermuda turf or catches. A head that suits a sweeper on a tight lie will dig for a golfer with a steeper delivery, no matter which shaft is in it.

Where We Start

With the divot pattern and the delivery angle, off a mat that shows contact and off a turf tray that shows how the sole behaves. Then shaft weight, then length, then head model. Head model genuinely is last, because it matters least until the earlier variables are settled.

• Delivery angle and low point measured before any change
• Sole interaction assessed off real turf, not just a mat
• Shaft weight and length tested against your driver's numbers for continuity
• Loft chosen against the gap above your longest iron or hybrid

The Gapping Question

A fairway wood only earns its place if it produces a distance you cannot otherwise reach. Plenty of bags contain a three wood and a five wood that carry within twelve yards of each other, which means one of them is occupying a slot for no reason.

Part of every F-2 session is establishing what the club is actually for. Sometimes the honest answer is that a five wood should replace the three, or that a hybrid does the job better for how you play. That answer costs the same as any other.