Hit 3 wood farther off tee than driver

[Eklypised]

IDK if its because i havent found the right driver for me yet or what. But it just seems I cant hit a driver good for whatever reason. The sound of it when i hit it doesn't sound like the people Im playing with. I can hit my 3 wood straight off the tee. But the driver will slice a little and its just not a solid hit. Any ideas on what I can do to work on my driver? Im thinking about getting the M2 driver and wood set.

[klineka]

Without seeing your swing at all, I suggest getting properly fit for a driver. What model is your current driver? I was in a similar situation as you where my 3 wood was more accurate and would travel further than my driver. I got access to a launch monitor, knew where I wanted my launch angle and spin rate to be, and adjusted my driver (Taylormade R1, so many different settings I could adjust) and now that it is dialed in for my swing, the proper gapping is back between my 3 wood (225-235 yds) and my driver (245-255) plus my driver is just as accurate as my 3 wood now.

While in my case I didnt quite get a proper professional club fitting, that was only because I was able to get a killer deal on the R1 from a guy on craigslist that I couldn't pass up. 

Is there a certain reason you are leaning towards the M2 driver and wood? One advantage of a professional fitting is that you will be able to try out a variety of drivers and woods to see which fit you the best

Edited April 18, 2017 by klineka

[saevel25]

10 hours ago, Eklypised said:

IDK if its because i havent found the right driver for me yet or what. But it just seems I cant hit a driver good for whatever reason. The sound of it when i hit it doesn't sound like the people Im playing with. I can hit my 3 wood straight off the tee. But the driver will slice a little and its just not a solid hit. Any ideas on what I can do to work on my driver? Im thinking about getting the M2 driver and wood set.

I would bet you are hitting down with the driver. 

I recommend starting a My Swing thread.

[Lihu]

12 hours ago, Eklypised said:

IDK if its because i havent found the right driver for me yet or what. But it just seems I cant hit a driver good for whatever reason. The sound of it when i hit it doesn't sound like the people Im playing with. I can hit my 3 wood straight off the tee. But the driver will slice a little and its just not a solid hit. Any ideas on what I can do to work on my driver? Im thinking about getting the M2 driver and wood set.

It could very well be the fit. Getting an M2 is not the ultimate solution though. You should look at XR16 or the GBB Epic.

 

Seriously, the 3W is an easier club to hit than the driver. The lower loft on the driver makes it harder to hit well.

 

[Dave2512]

5 hours ago, saevel25 said:

I would bet you are hitting down with the driver. 

This

[shanksalot]

There are two things that many people have in common. They can't hit their driver straight and can't hit a 3 wood off the deck. The 3 wood off the tee makes sense since it is a shorter shaft and a higher loft.  Getting fit could solve the problem especially if you can get fit by your club professional. Thus he can see what your problem is and can not only fit you to a driver that will help you he might be able to give you some advice in helping you swing better as well.

[Lihu]

18 minutes ago, shanksalot said:

There are two things that many people have in common. They can't hit their driver straight and can't hit a 3 wood off the deck. The 3 wood off the tee makes sense since it is a shorter shaft and a higher loft.  Getting fit could solve the problem especially if you can get fit by your club professional. Thus he can see what your problem is and can not only fit you to a driver that will help you he might be able to give you some advice in helping you swing better as well.

Shortening the shaft or gripping down can also fix both of these issues for most as well. Which makes me wonder why they make the shafts so long? I suppose it's so they can continue to sell new clubs. . . 

 

[bankquant]

When get the rare driver shot where you are not slicing it, is it still shorter than your average 3wood shot?

This was my big problem for the longest time.  Usually didnt even keep my driver in my bag so I wouldnt be tempted to use it. Almost every shot was a slice and would almost always go shorter than my 3wood because of the slice and also usually put me out of bounds or in an unplayable lie. 

It still somewhat this way. My average 3 wood is probably between 240-250 while my average drive is probably 250-260. However, I've gotten somewhat more consistent with my drives where its somewhere between a slice & fade most of the time now and I know if I hit it straight and clean my drive will go 280-300.  With the possibility of a 40-50 yard pickup it now worth the risk to hit driver.

Focus on your club face through impact and getting your drive to go straight along whatever your current swing path is.  Then you can either adjust your stance to accommodate or work on fixing your swing path.

[Eklypised]

Preciate the replay. I do think the best thing for me to do is to get fitted for new clubs. I think that would help. And I have no problem hitting the 3 wood off the deck or off the tee. It's just the driver. Sometimes it'll slice sometimes it'll go straight but the distance isn't their either way 

[Lihu]

46 minutes ago, Eklypised said:

Preciate the replay. I do think the best thing for me to do is to get fitted for new clubs. I think that would help. And I have no problem hitting the 3 wood off the deck or off the tee. It's just the driver. Sometimes it'll slice sometimes it'll go straight but the distance isn't their either way 

Spend a lot of time on the LM, it's worth the extra half hour or so.

One thing that could help is if you can have a 90 day performance guarantee. You might need to play with shafts/heads for a while.

For instance, I went in without any expectations and got fitted for the XR16. At first I had this concept of a R shaft with a 10.5 degree head. So, I tried it, and wound up spinning the shots way too much (like 7000 rpm ?!?). I ended up trying out another 5 or 6 shafts and three different heads (9.0, 10.5 and Pro) until I ended up with what I have now. A 9.0 degree stiff 565 speeder. So far, it seems to be working for me. Had some good rounds with it. Doesn't spin too much or too little, and I get pretty decent carry distances with all my swings. Seems very stable, now.

[shanksalot]

On ‎4‎/‎18‎/‎2017 at 0:05 PM, Lihu said:

Shortening the shaft or gripping down can also fix both of these issues for most as well. Which makes me wonder why they make the shafts so long? I suppose it's so they can continue to sell new clubs. . . 

 

It is all about selling clubs. Look at the irons today, (PW @ 44*) they jack up the irons and call what used to be an 8 or 9 iron a PW. They extend FW woods and driver shafts to help create more distance.

[Lihu]

38 minutes ago, shanksalot said:

It is all about selling clubs. Look at the irons today, (PW @ 44*) they jack up the irons and call what used to be an 8 or 9 iron a PW. They extend FW woods and driver shafts to help create more distance.

For a robot, maybe.

Most of us are lucky to find the club face with a 46" shaft, especially when playing for a buck a stroke.

I'm guessing that they do this so fitters can cut off an extra 2" off the shafts? Kind of a win-win situation for the big box store who sells the victim a too long and flexible shaft. Then a club fitter makes money cutting the shaft 2" and re-gripping. And the shaft that had too low a kick point and too much flex at the big box store? At 2" shorter it "magically" ends up being perfect. Magic. . .or good business. Don't know which?

[406pat]

8 minutes ago, Lihu said:

For a robot, maybe.

Most of us are lucky to find the club face with a 46" shaft, especially when playing for a buck a stroke.

 

For a robot absolutely! That's how they can get away with promising more distance, it's proven by testing on the robot so it's not false advertising. Doesn't matter that it actually makes it harder for Joe Average to find the center because Joe Average would rather have the 10% Longer Guarantee* than the truth.

My advice lies with others in that you should get fit first and pick the club after. Also, don't be afraid to ask about trying different shaft lengths. Most fitters have different lengths of shafts to try out too. I took 1-1/2" off my driver and wish I had done it earlier!

[boogielicious]

1 hour ago, shanksalot said:

It is all about selling clubs. Look at the irons today, (PW @ 44*) they jack up the irons and call what used to be an 8 or 9 iron a PW. They extend FW woods and driver shafts to help create more distance.

It is misconception that companies lower the club loft to get more distance through lower launch and more roll out. If a head has a lower center of gravity and launches higher, companies lower the head static loft to get the same optimum launch angle. More distance comes from faster ball speeds, which will give more carry. Static loft is really only part of the design. Launch angle is key to optimize distance.

[shanksalot]

2 hours ago, boogielicious said:

It is misconception that companies lower the club loft to get more distance through lower launch and more roll out. If a head has a lower center of gravity and launches higher, companies lower the head static loft to get the same optimum launch angle. More distance comes from faster ball speeds, which will give more carry. Static loft is really only part of the design. Launch angle is key to optimize distance.

So if you have a 44* pitching wedge you are not going to get more distance than that 48* pitching wedge you had in your bag. They also lower the cog on the club and put a shaft length for a nine iron. Basically what they do is take a nine iron and put PW on the club and give it a lower cog so it flies higher and goes further. Just watch some of these professional testers when they hit the irons during their testing process. They hit a 7 iron and say well it went X distance as long as my 6 iron but only because it is the same loft as my 6 iron.

[Lihu]

4 hours ago, boogielicious said:

It is misconception that companies lower the club loft to get more distance through lower launch and more roll out. If a head has a lower center of gravity and launches higher, companies lower the head static loft to get the same optimum launch angle. More distance comes from faster ball speeds, which will give more carry. Static loft is really only part of the design. Launch angle is key to optimize distance.

I don't really buy that he has a misconception, he stated that the clubs are longer and less loft. So. . .

1 hour ago, shanksalot said:

So if you have a 44* pitching wedge you are not going to get more distance than that 48* pitching wedge you had in your bag. They also lower the cog on the club and put a shaft length for a nine iron. Basically what they do is take a nine iron and put PW on the club and give it a lower cog so it flies higher and goes further. Just watch some of these professional testers when they hit the irons during their testing process. They hit a 7 iron and say well it went X distance as long as my 6 iron but only because it is the same loft as my 6 iron.

This has been my observation. At least when you are able to actually hit the club correctly. A lot of people can't even hit their 5i or even 6i any more. . .so the companies can sell you a complete set of 8 clubs plus another 2 hybrids to replace 2 of the clubs you just bought.

 

Edited April 21, 2017 by Lihu
hybrid :-P

[boogielicious]

13 hours ago, Lihu said:

I don't really buy that he has a misconception, he stated that the clubs are longer and less loft. So. . .

This has been my observation. At least when you are able to actually hit the club correctly. A lot of people can't even hit their 5i or even 6i any more. . .so the companies can sell you a complete set of 8 clubs plus another 2 hybrids to replace 2 of the clubs you just bought.

 

 

14 hours ago, shanksalot said:

So if you have a 44* pitching wedge you are not going to get more distance than that 48* pitching wedge you had in your bag. They also lower the cog on the club and put a shaft length for a nine iron. Basically what they do is take a nine iron and put PW on the club and give it a lower cog so it flies higher and goes further. Just watch some of these professional testers when they hit the irons during their testing process. They hit a 7 iron and say well it went X distance as long as my 6 iron but only because it is the same loft as my 6 iron.

Look, you're going to believe what you believe and I am not going to convince either of you, but you are both incorrect. Clubs go farther now because the faces have been designed to get more ball speed at the same swing speed, not because of only shaft length (that is only a tiny factor). Add higher launch to the increased in ball speed and lofts need to be lowered to optimize launch. This is how the club heads are engineered. 

I don't care that you don't want to believe it.

[Lihu]

53 minutes ago, boogielicious said:

Look, you're going to believe what you believe and I am not going to convince either of you, but you are both incorrect. Clubs go farther now because the faces have been designed to get more ball speed at the same swing speed, not because of only shaft length (that is only a tiny factor). Add higher launch to the increased in ball speed and lofts need to be lowered to optimize launch. This is how the club heads are engineered. 

I don't care that you don't want to believe it.

Not sure why you seem irritated by my observations, but the only thing I'm going by is the fact that most people can't even seem to hit their 5i or even 6i any more.

The low COG argument pertains to Ping Eye 2 as well. Those clubs also get higher launch. From some tests done on line and through personal experience they perform just as well as the Ping I20 I currently play. On the launch monitor, my i20 and i200 are almost identical, which is why I didn't get the i200s. They look awesome, but I need a better reason to upgrade. Ping clubs have not changed all that much over the last 20+ years. They were great back then just like they are now. So, I totally agree with you on this brand.

However, the other big name brands who've released a dozen models of clubs over the past 5 years or so, seem to be making them longer and with lower lofts. They seem to have just stamped a different number on the bottom. Those are the clubs that perhaps the other poster and I are referring? Not speaking for him, but it seems like when I picked up a 7i from a couple years back it felt like my Ping i20 5i. It was just as long too, and hit as far for me.

So, I'm pretty sure our assertions are both correct even though they sound contradictory.