3 Wood vs Driver Off the Tee Box...

[newtogolf]

Just now, gregsandiego said:

Someone please explain why a 3 wood is easier to hit then the driver? Long club, tiny head?

As I read this thread I'm thinking I should remove the club from my bag for all the good it has done for me.

Theory was the higher loft resulted in less side spin and the shorter shaft made it easier to control.  

Manufacturers have been working with weight placement in drivers to try to improve dispersion so it's pretty likely today that if you slice your driver fairly often you will have similar results with your 3 wood too.  

All our swings are different so the results we see with clubs will likely be different to.  It doesn't sound like you have much confidence in that club right now so maybe it's worth removing until you feel more comfortable with it.  

[DrvFrShow]

1 hour ago, onthehunt526 said:

Julia,

Is there an issue with mishits and such with the Big Stick and your 3-wood? Off the tee anyway? 

 

Nah. It's just at the range when I've been hitting a bunch of balls before and my back has gotten a little tired. When my lower back gets tired, my butt starts to come off the wall and I start early extending. Or it happens on the first tee when I'm still a little stiff and don't quite connect properly. My irons are a little more forgiving off the tee, so instead of hitting a breakfast ball, I'll go with my 4 iron off the first tee. Keeps it in play and on the short grass. Starts the round out on the right track.

[Lilfrier]

I've gone back and forth. When I restarted golfing a couple of years ago, I went into it unable to hit a driver. I got an X Hot 3 Deep to start with off the tee. I did OK, then it developed a rough slice. Just for the heck of it, I grabbed an old driver, and I hit it fairly straight and was pleased. I developed a slice with THAT as well over time. I recently switched to a different (but still too old) driver, just to see how I play it. I can slice it hard just the same, but I do feel better using the second driver.

All that said, if I have 3-4 holes of just wretched drives, I'll take the 3 wood for a hole or two. It usually works as an OK "Reset" button for me. I probably hit the two clubs similarly on average, but I think my longest distance on the driver was about 25 yards longer than the 3 Wood, so I try to keep using, and improving with, the driver.

[natureboy]

On 5/25/2013 at 8:21 AM, newtogolf said:

If you hit your driver well then it's seems logical that those of us that struggle with it should just practice more, but I'd argue there's more to it than just practice.  The loft, head size, shaft size all lend to make it a tougher club to hit, factor in muscle tension, swing thoughts, pressure from others watching your tee shot and no fairway seems wide enough.

I'm also experimenting with some old drivers like the Titleist 975D and 983J.  At the range I'm hitting them longer than the 3Deep and almost as accurately.  The smaller head, shorter shafts on these clubs seem to work better for me, so I doubt I'll be putting a 460cc, 46"+ shaft driver in my bag any time soon.

That's a good experiment, but you've missed a possible connecting thread: shorter shafts.

There's no way the larger more forgiving face of the 460cc driver is 'harder to hit'. The lower loft does magnify any face / path issues a bit, but the big difference is the stock shaft length. I think I read once that very few pros have a shaft length over 44.5" / 45" and they are taller than average. Try gripping down an inch or two with the high CC driver and see if you don't make better contact and average distance.

I think some driver vs 3 wood issues also stem from relative ball position on the swing arc due to the driver being teed up much higher than the typical tee height for a 3 wood.

Edited March 22, 2016 by natureboy

[Lihu]

1 hour ago, natureboy said:

That's a good experiment, but you've missed a possible connecting thread: shorter shafts.

There's no way the larger more forgiving face of the 460cc driver is 'harder to hit'. The lower loft does magnify any face / path issues a bit, but the big difference is the stock shaft length. I think I read once that very few pros have a shaft length over 44.5" / 45" and they are taller than average. Try gripping down an inch or two with the high CC driver and see if you don't make better contact and average distance.

I think some driver vs 3 wood issues also stem from relative ball position on the swing arc due to the driver being teed up much higher than the typical tee height for a 3 wood.

Lighter gives you more control as well, and cutting them shorter does more or less the same thing as making them lighter.

Newer more forgiving clubs also have lighter shafts along with nicer faces. For instance, I tried out a Big Bertha with a 9degree head and 50gm stiff shaft on a call away demo day at my driving range. Even with the serious swing flaw I just eliminated yesterday, the club performed very well. I was getting at least 5 yards more carry hitting the bottom of the face than with my ping i25 with centered strikes. The head was lighter and shaft was lighter than what I am using now, and the face was much more forgiving.

Obviously, my next step is to get a nicely fitted forgiving club like that one.

[Patch]

Unless I have time to warm up before a round, I usually hit my 3w off the first 2-3 holes. Eventually, once I have a decent swing going,  I will start using my driver, depending on what's in front of me. 

At my home course, the first hole is a par 5. It's 3w, 3w, pitch, for a likely par most of the time. I walk on most of the time, with out any swing warm ups. 

Ironically, the club I have the least confidence in,  is my 5w. This,  even though all my metal woods are a matched to my swing set. 

[dave s]

14 hours ago, gregsandiego said:

Someone please explain why a 3 wood is easier to hit then the driver? Long club, tiny head?

As I read this thread I'm thinking I should remove the club from my bag for all the good it has done for me.

What, remove the DRIVER?  For me, it's the easiest club in the bag to hit.  How can you miss swinging a club with a face the size of a grapefruit? If there's an easier club in the bag to hit than the driver, it's a putter!

dave

[natureboy]

10 hours ago, Lihu said:

Lighter gives you more control as well, and cutting them shorter does more or less the same thing as making them lighter.

Newer more forgiving clubs also have lighter shafts along with nicer faces. For instance, I tried out a Big Bertha with a 9degree head and 50gm stiff shaft on a call away demo day at my driving range. Even with the serious swing flaw I just eliminated yesterday, the club performed very well. I was getting at least 5 yards more carry hitting the bottom of the face than with my ping i25 with centered strikes. The head was lighter and shaft was lighter than what I am using now, and the face was much more forgiving.

Obviously, my next step is to get a nicely fitted forgiving club like that one.

25-50 grams or whatever difference the new shaft made may have some effect on improved contact, but if it was a newer driver, I expect your yardage gain had more to do with a more forgiving face or the kick point of the shaft (dynamic loft change) than the weight difference.

Gripping down will change the swing weight a bit, but I don't think it will make the club light enough to make a big difference in consistent impact. I think I saw online that reduced spin off low-face contact was a feature being promoted on drivers these days. Alas my driver is before that time and I often suffer from the thins. I would consider shaft length a much bigger factor for more centered strikes than shaft weight. Different shaft performance relative to your swing characteristics could be as or more significant though.

Edited March 23, 2016 by natureboy

[iacas]

10 hours ago, Lihu said:

Lighter gives you more control as well

Too light and you lose control, though. I prefer heavier clubs, generally speaking, largely because of the added control.

[Lihu]

I am pretty well convinced that a properly fit driver would be easier to hit than a 3W, but I have not had enough experience with a properly fit driver yet.

 

1 hour ago, natureboy said:

25-50 grams or whatever difference the new shaft made may have some effect on improved contact, but if it was a newer driver, I expect your yardage gain had more to do with a more forgiving face or the kick point of the shaft (dynamic loft change) than the weight difference.

Gripping down will change the swing weight a bit, but I don't think it will make the club light enough to make a big difference in consistent impact. I think I saw online that reduced spin off low-face contact was a feature being promoted on drivers these days. Alas my driver is before that time and I often suffer from the thins. I would consider shaft length a much bigger factor for more centered strikes than shaft weight. Different shaft performance relative to your swing characteristics could be as or more significant though.

Probably so. It was setup to be a really forgiving driver, and it really was.

 

1 hour ago, iacas said:

Too light and you lose control, though. I prefer heavier clubs, generally speaking, largely because of the added control.

Probably explains why it's so difficult for me to hit my Ping i25 PWR55 S. Light weight accentuated by my usual swing flaws, of course.

My guess is that I'll probably end up with my son's driver setup with a Stiff 72gm shaft mid-kick and a 910 like head. Which is what I seem to hit best anyway. Just want to get properly fitted before changing again.

[gregsandiego]

9 hours ago, dave s said:

What, remove the DRIVER?  For me, it's the easiest club in the bag to hit.  How can you miss swinging a club with a face the size of a grapefruit? If there's an easier club in the bag to hit than the driver, it's a putter!

dave

I think you misread my post. I said I wanted to remove the 3 wood.

 

 

[dave s]

10 hours ago, gregsandiego said:

I think you misread my post. I said I wanted to remove the 3 wood.

 

 

Me too.  3-wood out.  I used it on one hole on my home course, a 188-210 yard par-3.  Other than that, didn't see any playing time.  Went with a 5-wood to eat up yards on par 5s and long-ish par 4s that I can't reach in two!

dave

[Lihu]

12 hours ago, gregsandiego said:

I think you misread my post. I said I wanted to remove the 3 wood.

Not a bad idea. Like @dave s mentioned a 5W or a hybrid can eat up enough yards on most par 5s.

[gregsandiego]

On 3/23/2016 at 7:00 AM, dave s said:

Me too.  3-wood out.  I used it on one hole on my home course, a 188-210 yard par-3.  Other than that, didn't see any playing time.  Went with a 5-wood to eat up yards on par 5s and long-ish par 4s that I can't reach in two!

dave

One day at my home course I hit the 3 wood on a similar hole and hit the green. Unfortunately I've never been able to repeat that.

[Mike Boatright]

On 2/28/2012 at 0:55 PM, mrbillinoc said:

I love this game! I play 3 to 4 times a week and usually play as a single so I get put with a twosome or a threesome. Been lucky 'cause in over 20 years I've met some great friends and only met 2 or 3 guys that were a "pain" to play with.

 

One thing I always find interesting is this...probably a good 70% of all the guys I play with would have MORE fun and score MUCH better if they used a 3 Wood vs Driver off the tee box. Their drives go left, right, up, down, then they pull out the 'ol 3 wood and nail it straight down the middle!

 

Just a thought...if you only get out every once in a while to play try leaving your driver (and your ego) in the garage and hit your 3 wood off the tee. Make the game FUN again!

With the modern equipment being so forgiving these days there is absolutely no reason to not hit driver on most holes. The driver is the most forging club in the bag it's the biggest and goes the farthest! Just knock it down there and get it closer to the hole you score better. If there not very good then I would agree maybe a hybrid but a 3 wood is kinda small head and actually harder to hit than a driver fro most high cappers.

[Lilfrier]

I went golfing Wednesday, and I did this some. I still need to input the GG's round to see how I fared, but it wasn't especially well. I started with it on the first tee, and despite not hitting it too badly, I lost the ball in the grass short of the fairway. It wasn't in a bad spot, just one of those sad times where it must have gotten into some thick roughage and buried, I guess. I did it on a couple of other holes, and I hit the 3 reasonably well. It was a dump of a round to start, but I got it mostly together on the final 8 holes. That included hitting the 3 wood really well from the fairway.

I don't know that I drove better with the 3 than the driver, though. The benefit I can have there is that I have a tendency to get well under tee shots at times, so when I take a 3 wood from the tee, I don't use a tee at all. I don't mishit under it as a result, which is nice.

[bm85]

If it's a dangerous par 4 I use a hybrid, or a 4 iron. Otherwise, it's driver all day.

[sirhacksalot]

Going to try out a 12* driver and see if its the best of both worlds.  I tend to hit pully worm burners followed by big slices so I believe it has a lot to do with loft for me. With current driver 9* some / my best rounds I deliberately opened the face and aimed left playing the slice...cough... I means ... fade ;) so I hopeful for the greater loft.