3 wood vs driver

[TheTrueReview]

A couple of recent experiences make me wonder if there's anyone out there who plays a 3 wood as his driver.

I played 18 in an ambrose at Virginia on Friday & hit my driver like crap. Found it hard to hit the centre of the club (yes, I know it was me, not the club) A mate I played with has been raving about his G10 3 wood & how he can barely be bothered hitting his driver because his 3 wood is effortless, accurate & long. I witnessed first hand on the front 9 how well he hit his 3 wood. On the back 9 when we were looking good on the scorecard, my mate switched to his driver & never played anywhere near as good as his 3 wood.

So I pick up my new 3 wood over the weekend and play 9 holes on Sunday morning where I deliberately left the driver in the bag. Here are my gps verified distances, and results, with the 3 wood.

1st tee (warming up) - fairway hit - 230 metres.
Next drive - caught it a little fat - fairway hit - 220 metres.
Next drive - fairway hit - 240 metres.
Next drive - fairway hit - 240 metres.
Next drive - fairway hit - 240 metres.
Next drive - fairway hit - 250 metres.
Footnote: par threes removed from score. 240m drives rounded off. No embellishments with the driving distances.

After the round, I was thinking that if you can hit the fairway more times than not with a long 3 wood, why even touch the driver.

Anyone have any similar experiences/thoughts?

[markTHEblake]

why use a 3 wood?

Get a high loft driver, like 13 degrees, put a 42-43 inch shaft in it (and obviously get the weight right)

Now you have an effective 3 wood, but with a bloody big head. Got to be much easier to hit consistently than a normal 3 wood, so you will hit it further through consistent and the tee height advantage

[oz]

They are strong distances with a 15* 3 wood. What swing speeds to you generate and play with that reg shaft. I would take that all day long, if it were me.

[TheTrueReview]

They are strong distances with a 15* 3 wood. What swing speeds to you generate and play with that reg shaft. I would take that all day long, if it were me.

Thanks Oz. My swing speed is about 90 mph. Realistically I don't think my speed is going to get quicker.

I was playing a Pinnacle ball at the time. http://www.pinnaclegolf.com/balls/details.asp?id=15 Not because I like it but the course was tight, the ball was new but had been in my bag for a month or so & I didn't particularly care if I lost it. It was hard to lose it by hitting fairways. The fella I was playing with (experienced golfer) had a look at the Ping TFC shaft & commented that it was more of a firm regular flex.

[cutter1]

Have just switched to a 13 degree 3 wood, hit it as log as my driver +/- 5-10 metres, more consistently and straighter. It is 10-15 metres longer than my 15 degree 3 wood. I know it is all in my mind but I can only hit the fairway 2 or 3 times a round with the driver, so I am very happy with the three.

[dhills2]

why use a 3 wood?

Get a high loft driver, like 13 degrees, put a 42-43 inch shaft in it (and obviously get the weight right)

Now you have an effective 3 wood, but with a bloody big head. Got to be much easier to hit consistently than a normal 3 wood, so you will hit it further through consistent and the tee height advantage

This is something I am considering as an experiment. I'm currently hitting a 9 degree Nickent 4DX Tour which is very nice but probably too much stick for me with the Epic 68S.

I'm thinking of getting a Dymo2 or Diablo in 12-13 degrees with some sort of high launching reg shaft and then cutting it down a few inches.

Apart from weighting it correctly does anyone have any tips/advice? At the end of the day if this works I will probably end up dropping the V Steel 3 wood that rarely gets a go off the deck & put in a 2 hybrid or something around 17 degrees which is easier to launch.

[TheTrueReview]

Have just switched to a 13 degree 3 wood, hit it as log as my driver +/- 5-10 metres, more consistently and straighter. It is 10-15 metres longer than my 15 degree 3 wood. I know it is all in my mind but I can only hit the fairway 2 or 3 times a round with the driver, so I am very happy with the three.

All good points raised. It's almost a head over heart issue. We all like taking out the big stick but if hitting heaps of fairways is the outcome with a 3 wood compared to lots of OB, trees or bad lies with the driver, the answer seems clear.

[Iain]

I'm seriously considering doing this also. I finally seem to have found a 3 wood that I like (R9 15*). The other day at Brooky, I only hit driver once. The course was playing short so driver wasn't really necessary anyway, but unless a hole is 380m or over, I don't think I need one.

[just]

If you are hitting it 240 m with a 3 wood your swing speed isn't 90mph. If you are indeed hitting it that long and accurate with the three wood, stick with it.Otherwise Blakey's suggestion is good.

[Ferrins]

Using 3 wood off the Tee all the time is right up there with using iron covers and ladies balls. Do you piss sitting down.

[Iain]

If you are hitting it 240 m with a 3 wood your swing speed isn't 90mph. If you are indeed hitting it that long and accurate with the three wood, stick with it.Otherwise Blakey's suggestion is good.

^^^ What he said....

Unless you're getting 50m of roll....

[razaar]

My swing speed with a driver is a little over 90 mph and I usually find the sweet spot on most swings which are usually a straight draw. These are my distances in normal conditions.

Driver 220 - 230 metres
3-wood 210 - 215 metres
4-wood 190 - 200 metres
5 wood 170 - 180 metres

[Chris32]

Get fit with a decent driver and drop your 3 wood for another wedge...

You should be no more than 100m out on most par 4's with a driver you can hit as well as that 3 wood

[TheTrueReview]

If you are hitting it 240 m with a 3 wood your swing speed isn't 90mph. If you are indeed hitting it that long and accurate with the three wood, stick with it.Otherwise Blakey's suggestion is good.

Thanks Just. It's work in progress so I'll see how it goes. Re the swing speed vs distances outcome, I can't really comment. Last time I was measured a month ago at the House of Golf, it was as per normal - 90'ish. In other words, sometimes 88, sometimes 90, sometimes 93 etc. I mentioned in the OP that I was marking all drives with a gps (Sureshot 8850) to emphasise I wasn't guilding the lilly. Sure, there was some roll but not 50 metres.

I suppose a couple of things stick in my mind when taking account of distances, (1) my mate (a 12 marker) who was raving about the distance he was getting from his G10 3 wood [regular flex], and (2) my teaching pro/club fitter who persuaded me to drop back to regular flex saying how (amongst other things) it would give me greater distance. Perhaps he was right.

The bloke I played with on the weekend (an experienced golfer who liked to talk himself up) was using some TM Tour preferred R5 something or other driver with a you beaut brand stiff flex shaft. He was always first on the tee to hit off; half the time I was still pulling my club out of the bag when he was hitting off. I remember on 2 or 3 occasions he was marvelling at his drive while I was walking up to the tee but it turned out on every occasion I out drove him with the 3 wood. The distance was a bonus, but I was just enjoying hitting fairways.

Blakey, interesting suggestion. Thanks mate. I'll keep that in mind if the wheels fall off later.

[just]

TTR
No suggestion you are gilding the lily for distance, I'm sure the GPS is correct, more like if your are hitting that distance then your driver swing speed is much higher than 90mph or you are getting a lot of roll on the dry surfaces at the moment, I'd suggest a combo of both.

[BrisVegas]

TTR
No suggestion you are gilding the lily for distance, I'm sure the GPS is correct, more like if your are hitting that distance then your driver swing speed is much higher than 90mph...

^^^ that was my first thought too. Not that it matters ultimately. I hit my 3wood 220ish and driver 240ish (I've been on launch monitors heaps and am always around 110mph), but I'm more confident with the driver as it's got a bigger head. blakey's idea of a 12-13deg driver with a shorter shaft isn't bad if you can hit that sort of club.

[razaar]

^^^ that was my first thought too. Not that it matters ultimately. I hit my 3wood 220ish and driver 240ish (I've been on launch monitors heaps and am always around 110mph), but I'm more confident with the driver as it's got a bigger head. blakey's idea of a 12-13deg driver with a shorter shaft isn't bad if you can hit that sort of club.

The issue with shorter shafts in a driver is the low ball flight and the lack of carry, so high loft is essential. My 3-wood is the Cally Hot X which has a 44 inch shaft and 15 degree loft with a slightly larger head than a regular 3-wood head. My driver has 10 degree loft yet I hit the driver way higher than the 3-wood with the same swing off a tee. I'll bet everybody else does the same.

[zigwah]

I've only ever measured my club head speed using a 5 iron, is there much diff to the driver?

My 5 iron was 88mph or was it 78, bugger i can't remember now lol

The reason i ask is that i recently changed all my clubs back to reg shafts and i had started to get a lot of stap hooks with the driver, was wondering if this was the shaft because i never hit it left, or something else.

[markTHEblake]

mine is about 10mph difference from memory

Golfsmith.com has recommended swing speeds in their shaft specifications, and they say for stiff
5 iron 80-90
driver 95-105

so i guess they reckon the difference is between 10-15

[adlo]

The reason i ask is that i recently changed all my clubs back to reg shafts and i had started to get a lot of stap hooks with the driver, was wondering if this was the shaft because i never hit it left, or something else.

There are different schools of thought on this one zig, but I would say unless you are swinging as hard as a tour player, a reg shaft will not be causing these snap hooks.

[razaar]

There are different schools of thought on this one zig, but I would say unless you are swinging as hard as a tour player, a reg shaft will not be causing these snap hooks.

Reg shafts are perfect for Zig, unless he has found a couple of additional horsepower since June.

[Lucasto23]

Everbody women up in this thread and learn to hit your driver at a decent lenght even if it's 16* degrees of loft

[TourFit]

The issue with shorter shafts in a driver is the low ball flight and the lack of carry, so high loft is essential. My 3-wood is the Cally Hot X which has a 44 inch shaft and 15 degree loft with a slightly larger head than a regular 3-wood head. My driver has 10 degree loft yet I hit the driver way higher than the 3-wood with the same swing off a tee. I'll bet everybody else does the same.

Actually, it's more to do with CoG and MOI on the heads due to the size (volume). A 13* Driver head WILL have a totally different 'effective' loft than a 13* 3W...the head volume of the driver allows a lower and further from the face CoG.

The way to look at it is this : YOU are the biggest limiting factor on how far you can hit a golf ball. If you hit your 3W almost as far as your driver then what physics is actually telling you is that the stats of your most effective driving club (remember that it is a balance of distance, accuracy and consistency - just ask Tiger!) is in reality closer to those of your 3W than that of your current driver.

So the suggestion of a higher lofted driver played at a shorter length (and perhaps also a heavier weight, which increases MOI), makes PERFECT sense. You will usually get more carry, more accuracy, more consistency and your bad shots may not be as bad (shorter shaft/more loft). It may also take a little time to finely balance the best head loft and shaft type to get the result you want...but fundamentally, that is the way to do it.

The ENTIRE golf game is based on one principle, and evrything revolves around that principle, and applies to EVERY club :

"Hit the ball in the centre of the clubface, with the clubface square at impact."

[razaar]

TF..not sure that your post is in the same context as mine (which you have quoted) .

[markTHEblake]

This post is worth reviewing again for this topic, one of the Apostle Virges better epistles.

The clubhead is the most important way to control spin, but it depends on what level you are at.

Low markers should worry about spin rates - but if you are off double figures - loft is way more important. And most double figure makers are at least 2 degrees to low.

I won my club champs with a 13.5 degree driver. It was a Precept Fuel driver that I bought for $30 on eBay. I stuck an 85gram X flex shaft in it and I think I hit every fairway except 2 over the last 2 days of matchplay. It was about 20m shorter, so I hit 8 iron instead of pitching wedge. Still hard to bogey a hole with 8 iron in your hand. I still have it and use it as a 3 wood.

I reckon golf at my level is about making less mistakes - not about making birdies. Especially on my course which if I hit my driver on every par 4 - I would have 9i or less into the hole (125m)