Pulling the 3/4 Wood Out of the Bag

[Farangster]

So I know must folks on here are in love with their woods, but I am not one of them so I am thinking of pulling it from the bag.  I can work the ball left and right with my driver so generally never need to hit it off the tee.  Therefore the only real reason i carry it is to get on the green in 2 on par 5's and I cannot recall the last time i did that, sure I get pin high plenty of times in 2 on a par 5 but off the green so the accuracy is difficult.  It's a longer club, harder to make clean contact, sweeping swing that I don't use with other clubs off the grass except driver off a tee.  i use an iron style, smaller headed hybrid that i can manipulate easily and get out there 230. playing only once ever two weeks and maybe only swing the 3 wood a few times a round.  I tend to hook 5 wood's or higher lofted woods, big hybrids, etc.  I would like to break 80 consistently, maybe just focusing on my iron swing I can make this happen.  Anyone else out there get where I'm coming from?  Anyone not playing all the time and just pull the woods from the bag?

[Shindig]

I keep a 4-wood in my bag and, if I'm swinging well, I'll hit it.  If not, I'll hit my 3H.

What would you replace it with?  Both, what would you have in the bag instead of it if you left it in the trunk, and what would you hit in situations where you'd otherwise hit your longest non-driver wood (e.g., typical second shot on a par-5)?

[Farangster]

9 minutes ago, Shindig said:

I keep a 4-wood in my bag and, if I'm swinging well, I'll hit it.  If not, I'll hit my 3H.

What would you replace it with?  Both, what would you have in the bag instead of it if you left it in the trunk, and what would you hit in situations where you'd otherwise hit your longest non-driver wood (e.g., typical second shot on a par-5)?

Well I have a 21 hybrid i would use and am confident with, I am not sure an 18 hybrid would help much.  So generally on a par 5 my typical drive is about 260-290 total distance and can hit my hybrid 230 on a perfect shot so most of the time about 220ish with a little chip shot for my third shot to get close for a birdie putt.

[pganapathy]

So essentially you are looking at a gap of 50 or so yards between your driver and hybrid.  Am assuming the wood would bridge that pretty well.  If you are OK with that gap go ahead.

Currently my clubs are Driver and 4 Hybrid, so I understand where you are coming from.  Partly that is because I don't have a good set of woods and vitamin M is preventing me buying a nice 4 or 5 wood.

Ideally you should get a wood.  On long par 4s and par 5s, it can really make a difference.  Even being 20 yards closer to the green helps in reducing your score.  Much easier to get the ball close to the pin from 10 yards off the green than 30

[Farangster]

7 hours ago, pganapathy said:

So essentially you are looking at a gap of 50 or so yards between your driver and hybrid.  Am assuming the wood would bridge that pretty well.  If you are OK with that gap go ahead.

Currently my clubs are Driver and 4 Hybrid, so I understand where you are coming from.  Partly that is because I don't have a good set of woods and vitamin M is preventing me buying a nice 4 or 5 wood.

Ideally you should get a wood.  On long par 4s and par 5s, it can really make a difference.  Even being 20 yards closer to the green helps in reducing your score.  Much easier to get the ball close to the pin from 10 yards off the green than 30

I hear you but I never need a wood on a par 4, if I have a wayward drive and in the crap fairway wood is not going to be my go to club for that situation, otherwise I will be far enough down the fairway with my drive that a fairway wood is not needed on a par 4.  So really we are only talking about par 5's where I could use it and the fact that I play only twice a month at the most there is a 50% chance I will not max the distance with the fairway wood and even if I do, it's unlikely that the ball will go exactly where i want it to go.  the more distance you get with a golf club the more likely you will go offline if your swing or timing is even just a little bit off. 

[Shindig]

10 minutes ago, Farangster said:

I hear you but I never need a wood on a par 4, if I have a wayward drive and in the crap fairway wood is not going to be my go to club for that situation, otherwise I will be far enough down the fairway with my drive that a fairway wood is not needed on a par 4.  So really we are only talking about par 5's where I could use it and the fact that I play only twice a month at the most there is a 50% chance I will not max the distance with the fairway wood and even if I do, it's unlikely that the ball will go exactly where i want it to go.  the more distance you get with a golf club the more likely you will go offline if your swing or timing is even just a little bit off. 

Sure, but golf isn't a game of called shots.  Are you familiar with the ideas of shot cones / shot zones? 

[Farangster]

11 minutes ago, Shindig said:

Sure, but golf isn't a game of called shots.  Are you familiar with the ideas of shot cones / shot zones? 

Sure but I think most of us have a pretty specific idea where we want the ball to go before we hit it during a round of golf, I would hope.  Actually, I know exactly where I want all my shots to go when I am playing a round and if its within 10 yards on a long shot or 5 yards on a short shot of where I want it to go, I call that a decent shot in my mind.  I am always shooting for my targets in golf, otherwise I would get in my own head thinking about my swing and then bad things would happen.

[Shindig]

3 hours ago, Farangster said:

Sure but I think most of us have a pretty specific idea where we want the ball to go before we hit it during a round of golf, I would hope.  Actually, I know exactly where I want all my shots to go when I am playing a round and if its within 10 yards on a long shot or 5 yards on a short shot of where I want it to go, I call that a decent shot in my mind.  I am always shooting for my targets in golf, otherwise I would get in my own head thinking about my swing and then bad things would happen.

Right, but where you want the ball to end up and where you aim don't have to be the same thing.  I know that my hybrids and woods tend to hook if they aren't going straight (which they rarely do).  So if I'm going for a green, I aim for the right side of the green, even though I'd far prefer for the ball to end up middle of the green.

[Farangster]

48 minutes ago, Shindig said:

Right, but where you want the ball to end up and where you aim don't have to be the same thing.  I know that my hybrids and woods tend to hook if they aren't going straight (which they rarely do).  So if I'm going for a green, I aim for the right side of the green, even though I'd far prefer for the ball to end up middle of the green.

I gotcha, if i am hitting offline consistently in one direction with a warmup bucket, I will aim for a target off center in the opposite direction until they start flying straighter on the golf course.........usually it's a matter of finding my tempo.

[cristphoto]

Your logic might work if you only play one course and can tune your clubs to it. But what do you do if you play other courses? Or play your normal course but on windy or chilly days?  Or tee box moved way up or back? Or don't catch a solid drive? My thinking is to have minimum gaps between clubs so you can plan on most any circumstance.  My personal wood set-up is 10.5 driver, 16.5 3/4 wood, and 22 degree hybrid so I have about 6 degrees between each club.  Then 4 iron on up. Works for me.

Edited June 10, 2019 by cristphoto

[WUTiger]

I have encountered golfers who have excellent driver distance, and opt for all hybrids and no FWs. If you want to do that, go for it.

That said, have you ever been fitted for your 3W? The average golfer hits a 4W more reliably - and sometimes farther - than a 3W.

For starters, put an impact decal on the clubface. If you hit 10 shots and the impact points are all over the clubface, probably the shaft is too long for you.

A too-long shaft also can cause left misses, because the upright lie tends to point the clubface slightly to left. Trimming the shaft can flatten the lie a bit.