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5 wood over driver?


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Hi there, i've got a question regarding club choice. For the past 2 months I've been using a ping G15 5 wood to tee off instead of my ping G20 9.5 loft driver. The reason for this has been accuracy, I can consistently put the 5 wood in fairways, and using this method my last 3 rounds have been 78, 83, and 79, so im seeing lower scores. My question is, should I keep using the 5 wood or learn to hit my driver consistently, (which is very hard for me, but on good hits im seeing 295-300 yd hits). With my 5 wood im seeing around 270 consistently, and I'm always placing the ball right up with the people im playing with who are using their drivers. Should i continue to keep my distance advantage on the backburner, or should I start hitting the big stick and learn to keep it consistent? Would love to get some opinions, thanks!
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Just my two cents here: be careful to fear your driver. At least, in my case, I did not use it in the beginning and now I fear it, and it´s the main reason why I´m not able to play great rounds. So I´m practice it a lot right now, in order to use it properly. You can use your 5 wood, but practise your driver too, and use it more and more gradually, in some holes. It´s crucial to learn to use it and not to fear the big guy.
Hope it helps. Good Luck !

:nike:

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Here's a thought.

5W = 18.5 degree loft. Shaft length ~ 42.5" - 43.5"

Driver = 9.5 degree loft. Shaft length ~ 45.5"

The average tour player has a driver shaft length of 44". They're more accurate than a 45.5" shaft, but you've got a SS well over 100 mph with your 5W.

You might want to get a driver with more loft and a shorter shaft... say 11.5 degrees and a 44" shaft?

I hit my friend's 13.5 degree G15 driver tonight, and nailed it for more distance and better accuracy than my 11.5 degree Callaway.

Julia

:callaway:  :cobra:    :seemore:  :bushnell:  :clicgear:  :adidas:  :footjoy:

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Driver: Callaway Big Bertha w/ Fubuki Z50 R 44.5"
FW: Cobra BiO CELL 14.5 degree; 
Hybrids: Cobra BiO CELL 22.5 degree Project X R-flex
Irons: Cobra BiO CELL 5 - GW Project X R-Flex
Wedges: Cobra BiO CELL SW, Fly-Z LW, 64* Callaway PM Grind.
Putter: 48" Odyssey Dart

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This is excellent advice, I like both ideas of shaft length and lofting up. Ive hit a 12 before and felt its comfort, perhaps an 11.5 could be the perfect amount of loft. Needless to say i'll be heading to golf galaxy this week haha, thanks!
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Also Jameson, I do fear the driver.. Its a bad thing as I can definitely put the ball out there, but my lack of control is what keeps me reaching for the 5 wood. I do like your idea of gradual use, I think perhaps if I trust my driver on certain holes it will restore the confidence I lack with it. Hoping for better results, but first lots of practice, thanks for the input!
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Hi there, i've got a question regarding club choice. For the past 2 months I've been using a ping G15 5 wood to tee off instead of my ping G20 9.5 loft driver. The reason for this has been accuracy, I can consistently put the 5 wood in fairways, and using this method my last 3 rounds have been 78, 83, and 79, so im seeing lower scores. My question is, should I keep using the 5 wood or learn to hit my driver consistently, (which is very hard for me, but on good hits im seeing 295-300 yd hits). With my 5 wood im seeing around 270 consistently, and I'm always placing the ball right up with the people im playing with who are using their drivers. Should i continue to keep my distance advantage on the backburner, or should I start hitting the big stick and learn to keep it consistent? Would love to get some opinions, thanks!

Also Jameson, I do fear the driver.. Its a bad thing as I can definitely put the ball out there, but my lack of control is what keeps me reaching for the 5 wood. I do like your idea of gradual use, I think perhaps if I trust my driver on certain holes it will restore the confidence I lack with it. Hoping for better results, but first lots of practice, thanks for the input!


This is literally the same as me, had never considered a 5 wood until a friend gifted me his old one and oh my it goes like a dream as you say I can hit it easily 260+ with solid strikes hitting fairways regularly, I genuinely feel like I hardly ever hit a bad shot!

However give me a driver & its a whole nutha story, I wouldn't say I fear it as I like getting the big club out and giving it a hit but when you know that by trying to play the driver round the course you could be costing yourself anywhere between 4-8 shots a round (and a fair few balls!) its sometimes not worth it.

I attempted to bridge the gap with a 3 wood and build up from there, my thought process being it isn't that much different to a 5 right? Well I have had some mixed results with it thus far.

I guess its just down to practice practice practice!

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Hi there, i've got a question regarding club choice. For the past 2 months I've been using a ping G15 5 wood to tee off instead of my ping G20 9.5 loft driver. The reason for this has been accuracy, I can consistently put the 5 wood in fairways, and using this method my last 3 rounds have been 78, 83, and 79, so im seeing lower scores. My question is, should I keep using the 5 wood or learn to hit my driver consistently, (which is very hard for me, but on good hits im seeing 295-300 yd hits). With my 5 wood im seeing around 270 consistently, and I'm always placing the ball right up with the people im playing with who are using their drivers. Should i continue to keep my distance advantage on the backburner, or should I start hitting the big stick and learn to keep it consistent? Would love to get some opinions, thanks!

Learn to hit your driver. It is a big advantage. From your 5 wood distance you are walking away from about 30 yards of distance. That is a huge loss. That is nearly 3 clubs shorter into the green.

Also, I would learn how to hit the driver to 270. For one the driver is designed to be hit off the tee. It is more forgiving. So, take your driver and swing 70%. You can easily get it out there 290-300 yards and gain substantial accuracy over the 5-wood.

Matt Dougherty, P.E.
 fasdfa dfdsaf 

What's in My Bag
Driver; :pxg: 0311 Gen 5,  3-Wood: 
:titleist: 917h3 ,  Hybrid:  :titleist: 915 2-Hybrid,  Irons: Sub 70 TAIII Fordged
Wedges: :edel: (52, 56, 60),  Putter: :edel:,  Ball: :snell: MTB,  Shoe: :true_linkswear:,  Rangfinder: :leupold:
Bag: :ping:

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That's pretty long for a 5 wood. I would make sure of that yardage. And I agree about learning to hit the driver.

Driver.......Ping K15 9.5* stiff 3 wood.....Ping K15 16* stiff 5 wood.....Ping K15 19* stiff 4 Hybrid...Cleveland Gliderail 23* stiff 5 - PW......Pinhawk SL GW...........Tommy Armour 52* SW...........Tommy Armour 56* LW...........Tommy Armour 60* FW...........Diamond Tour 68* Putter.......Golfsmith Dyna Mite Ball..........Volvik Vista iV Green Bag..........Bennington Quiet Organizer Shoes.... ..Crocs

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270, with accuracy, with a 5W is pretty good. If I had an accurate, 270 yard, 5W in my bag, that's all I would use. I'd junk my driver, and 3W.

What are your misses with that 300+/- yard driver? Slice? Hook?

I might ask if you have a 3W, and how you do with it. Maybe even a 2W.  Both should be more accurate than your driver, and longer than your 5W.

Another thing you might want to check is, besides the loft, and length, what might be the difference in your driver from your 5 wood?

In My Bag:
A whole bunch of Tour Edge golf stuff...... :beer:

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Loyal ,

Have you been on a launch monitor lately with your driver?

Possibly the driver has some physical characteristics which don't match your swing. Some examples:

  • Head design: Does it get the ball up enough? Does it get the ball up too much? How much spin does it generate?
  • Shaft profile: Does the shaft match your swing speed and your transition at the top (Transition = smooth, medium or quick)?
  • Shaft length: Could you get more control with a shorter shaft? When a shorter shaft improves center hits on clubface, you wouldn't lose much usable yardage because of more efficient clubface contact.

Again, a launch monitor can give you numbers to work with, and a good clubfitter can help you interpret them.

( Note: You have more than 10 posts now, so you probably qualify to establish a Signature line - see below. One thing you could put in your Sig line is your club mix and specifications. That way, we could better answer questions you ask about your game and gear.)

Focus, connect and follow through!

  • Completed KBS Education Seminar (online, 2015)
  • GolfWorks Clubmaking AcademyFitting, Assembly & Repair School (2012)

Driver:  :touredge: EXS 10.5°, weights neutral   ||  FWs:  :callaway: Rogue 4W + 7W
Hybrid:  :callaway: Big Bertha OS 4H at 22°  ||  Irons:  :callaway: Mavrik MAX 5i-PW
Wedges:  :callaway: MD3: 48°, 54°... MD4: 58° ||  Putter:image.png.b6c3447dddf0df25e482bf21abf775ae.pngInertial NM SL-583F, 34"  
Ball:  image.png.f0ca9194546a61407ba38502672e5ecf.png QStar Tour - Divide  ||  Bag: :sunmountain: Three 5 stand bag

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Six cents.

1) Work the driver back into your game. Pick a few holes where the risk v reward allows for a miss that doesn't hurt so much, i.e. shot zones and game plans. Use the 5W on the  other tee shots.

2) Trimming a driver's length worked for me (44"). But, I suggest a fit over trial and error.

3) Are there significant shaft spec differences between your driver and 5W?

Gambling is illegal at Bushwood sir, and I never slice.   

           

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Hi there, i've got a question regarding club choice. For the past 2 months I've been using a ping G15 5 wood to tee off instead of my ping G20 9.5 loft driver. The reason for this has been accuracy, I can consistently put the 5 wood in fairways, and using this method my last 3 rounds have been 78, 83, and 79, so im seeing lower scores. My question is, should I keep using the 5 wood or learn to hit my driver consistently, (which is very hard for me, but on good hits im seeing 295-300 yd hits). With my 5 wood im seeing around 270 consistently, and I'm always placing the ball right up with the people im playing with who are using their drivers. Should i continue to keep my distance advantage on the backburner, or should I start hitting the big stick and learn to keep it consistent? Would love to get some opinions, thanks!

The people you play are already pretty long hitters.

So, I see no reason to continue using the 5W. There are other alternatives to the 5W. The mini-driver from TM might be a good option for you.

:ping:  :tmade:  :callaway:   :gamegolf:  :titleist:

TM White Smoke Big Fontana; Pro-V1
TM Rac 60 TT WS, MD2 56
Ping i20 irons U-4, CFS300
Callaway XR16 9 degree Fujikura Speeder 565 S
Callaway XR16 3W 15 degree Fujikura Speeder 565 S, X2Hot Pro 20 degrees S

"I'm hitting the woods just great, but I'm having a terrible time getting out of them." ~Harry Toscano

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Hi everyone, Im very thrilled with the responses im getting here! Regarding distance, I'm going off of where i've been landing with my groups drives. So realistically, I've seen that i've been hitting the 5 wood 250-270 off the tee. I think I carry so much distance with it, because I've been practicing so much with this club at the range, and have been able to accurately swing faster with it upon teeing off. What I've noticed, is that I can sometimes reach par 5's in 2, with my 2nd club being my 4 hybrid (which is my most controlled club in the bag). When im not getting there in 2, I'm usually 15-20 yds off. Regarding driver miss hits, my natural shot is a very small draw, if I dont make the right contact, I tend to hook the ball really low to the ground resulting in a very short drive making it hard to recover. My miss hits on a larger scale tend to slice o.b. All of these things have really kept me from picking it up again, as if im playing with a driver (granted the distance advantage, like Matt66 said, im costing myself at least 4-8 strokes around. And now most recently breaking 80 now consistently has all been due to placing myself in fairways consistently with the 5 wood. Im hoping to find an alternative that wont sacrifice so much distance, and will see what modifications i can make to the driver that fits my swing better, again thanks for the replys everyone!
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Let's say for argument that it's not 270 but 250 yds which is PGA tour average with roll out for a 5 wood. 250 in the fairway is better than 280 in the woods + penalty or recovery strokes.

So your miss is a duck hook that goes about 100 yds and way left, or a long slice that goes about 30+ yds right. Otherwise you hit a draw. I'll put money you hit more misses than draws, though.

The FIRs on PGA stats are very misleading, too. If you take away the 3W shots the percentage drops into the 40s. Basically we're going to miss a lot with the driver, but it always will come back for you.... always. You'll get those great strikes.

Here's a suggestion before you buy a new driver - get some electric tape. About an inch down on the grip make about a 1/8" thick wrap of it. It will be similar the end of a bat. It will just be a reminder to not grip to the end of the club, and will give you the feel of say a 44.5" shaft as opposed to a 45.5" shaft. This way you can try it out before you cut the shaft, because once you cut it, it's done. Maybe try a little over an inch down to see if that's better, too. You can remove electrical tape free, and it leaves no residue. Try it at the range and play a few rounds with it - psst, yes, I know it's "against the rules" but you're trying out to see if you want to cut the shaft on your club, so call them "practice rounds." My league caught me on this last year - I told them that I was testing out to see if I liked playing with a shorter shaft before I had it cut. If I liked it, I was having it cut on the way home. If not, the tape was coming off. That simple. The committee waived the rule for one round.

Try it on your G20 before you spend any money and see if that helps. Take it to the range and try to keep the ball +/- 10 yds lateral and see how you do. The shorter shaft will cost you a little distance, but if you're hitting 280 I wouldn't worry about a few yards.

Julia

:callaway:  :cobra:    :seemore:  :bushnell:  :clicgear:  :adidas:  :footjoy:

Spoiler

Driver: Callaway Big Bertha w/ Fubuki Z50 R 44.5"
FW: Cobra BiO CELL 14.5 degree; 
Hybrids: Cobra BiO CELL 22.5 degree Project X R-flex
Irons: Cobra BiO CELL 5 - GW Project X R-Flex
Wedges: Cobra BiO CELL SW, Fly-Z LW, 64* Callaway PM Grind.
Putter: 48" Odyssey Dart

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Hi everyone, Im very thrilled with the responses im getting here! Regarding distance, I'm going off of where i've been landing with my groups drives. So realistically, I've seen that i've been hitting the 5 wood 250-270 off the tee. I think I carry so much distance with it, because I've been practicing so much with this club at the range, and have been able to accurately swing faster with it upon teeing off. What I've noticed, is that I can sometimes reach par 5's in 2, with my 2nd club being my 4 hybrid (which is my most controlled club in the bag). When im not getting there in 2, I'm usually 15-20 yds off. Regarding driver miss hits, my natural shot is a very small draw, if I dont make the right contact, [COLOR=FF00AA]I tend to hook the ball really low to the ground resulting in a very short drive [/COLOR] making it hard to recover. My miss hits on a larger scale tend to slice o.b. All of these things have really kept me from picking it up again, as if im playing with a driver (granted the distance advantage, like Matt66 said, im costing myself at least 4-8 strokes around. And now most recently breaking 80 now consistently has all been due to placing myself in fairways consistently with the 5 wood. Im hoping to find an alternative that wont sacrifice so much distance, and will see what modifications i can make to the driver that fits my swing better, again thanks for the replys everyone!

This might be caused by overswinging. Your hips may be opening up too soon causing the pulled quacker. I know that shot well. With the 5W you are probably swinging with better tempo. When you take your driver to the range, concentrate on making a smooth transition at the top.

Driver.......Ping K15 9.5* stiff 3 wood.....Ping K15 16* stiff 5 wood.....Ping K15 19* stiff 4 Hybrid...Cleveland Gliderail 23* stiff 5 - PW......Pinhawk SL GW...........Tommy Armour 52* SW...........Tommy Armour 56* LW...........Tommy Armour 60* FW...........Diamond Tour 68* Putter.......Golfsmith Dyna Mite Ball..........Volvik Vista iV Green Bag..........Bennington Quiet Organizer Shoes.... ..Crocs

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Let's say for argument that it's not 270 but 250 yds which is PGA tour average with roll out for a 5 wood. 250 in the fairway is better than 280 in the woods + penalty or recovery strokes.

If you are hitting the 5-wood 250 yards the likelihood of hitting a ball into the woods at 280 yards is very slim. To the point were it is actually a disservice to your game to keep the driver in the bag. It is VERY VERY rare to have a guy who hits it 280 yards and be that inaccurate with a driver compared to a 5-wood. The correlation between handicap and driving distance is pretty strong. Handicap is about ball striking, which means a lower handicap usually hits it farther and hits it straighter than a higher handicap player.

Matt Dougherty, P.E.
 fasdfa dfdsaf 

What's in My Bag
Driver; :pxg: 0311 Gen 5,  3-Wood: 
:titleist: 917h3 ,  Hybrid:  :titleist: 915 2-Hybrid,  Irons: Sub 70 TAIII Fordged
Wedges: :edel: (52, 56, 60),  Putter: :edel:,  Ball: :snell: MTB,  Shoe: :true_linkswear:,  Rangfinder: :leupold:
Bag: :ping:

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Well, that 2" of shaft length can throw off tempo, and he's coming through at 110 mph I'm guessing that's not much time to get his clubhead to come back square. This is where I have trouble. When I try to hit the ball hardest is when I hit the biggest slices. When I'm hitting about 90% I have "power fade," :-D but it's a bit more controlled. At 80% it's fairly straight even with a draw. But I'm not hitting it any further than my 5 wood @ 80%. But I guess slow to go fast.

With a higher lofted driver, I have more backspin on the ball to overcome the sidespin. Perhaps practicing with it at about 80% and getting the thing working well there, then gradually increasing downswing speed would be the way to go.

Julia

:callaway:  :cobra:    :seemore:  :bushnell:  :clicgear:  :adidas:  :footjoy:

Spoiler

Driver: Callaway Big Bertha w/ Fubuki Z50 R 44.5"
FW: Cobra BiO CELL 14.5 degree; 
Hybrids: Cobra BiO CELL 22.5 degree Project X R-flex
Irons: Cobra BiO CELL 5 - GW Project X R-Flex
Wedges: Cobra BiO CELL SW, Fly-Z LW, 64* Callaway PM Grind.
Putter: 48" Odyssey Dart

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Note: This thread is 3320 days old. We appreciate that you found this thread instead of starting a new one, but if you plan to post here please make sure it's still relevant. If not, please start a new topic. Thank you!

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